James Gunn reveals very important information about The High Evolutionary from the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.
Attention SPOILERS. The movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is the new installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that has reached theaters. On this occasion, James Gunn has prepared a very emotional story with action and humor, but also highlights his villain. Since he is the classic mad scientist from the comics and is also related to Rocket’s past.
In the movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 we clearly see how The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) dies when the ship explodes. But it turns out that he is alive. This has been revealed by director James Gunn himself.
“Yeah! It is the complete culmination of Rocket’s journey. The change in him comes in that he doesn’t kill him, he goes from being the least empathetic Guardian to the most empathetic. He seems dumb and hollow that you refuse to kill him and then leave him on an exploding ship. And, yes, there is a deleted scene. It’s really cool, but it messed up the pacing at the end. But you’ll see it in the extras eventually.”
So when the movie is available in its digital version, it will come with some extra content and show us how The High Evolutionary survives.
Why don’t they kill him?
In the previous movies of these characters, we see how they finish off Ronan (Lee Pace) in the first and EGO (Kurt Russell) in the second. However, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, after an epic showdown where The High Evolutionary loses face, they decide to leave him alive. That’s Rocket’s decision, as he’s clearly transformed, because we’ve always seen him as a grumpy little being who does whatever he wants and now he’s a true Guardian of the Galaxy. Therefore, Star Lord decides that he is the new leader of the next team.
Will we see The High Evolutionary again in another Marvel Cinematic Universe movie?
James Gunn probably won’t be back with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 4, so it’s unlikely they’ll use this character again. However, they are doing a great event like Avengers: Secret Wars (2026) and some villains that we have seen in the UCM could return. So The High Evolutionary could get a second chance to catch Rocket or even a redemption. We will have to wait a bit to find out what plans they are preparing.
Meanwhile, you can review all Marvel installments on the Disney Plus streaming platform.