Every Marvel movie has a villain, and “Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3” has a particularly good one: the High Evolutionary. This one is spared by Rocket, but then dies on his spaceship – but only seemingly…
“Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3” lives not only from Rocket’s deeply touching backstory and the cabbles between the Guardians, but also from the wonderfully nasty and hateful villain High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). But although one or two in the audience would certainly have wished it otherwise, Rocket lets the creep live in the finale – only to have him seemingly go down with his ship. But it’s not that simple.
If you look very closely in the finale of “Guardians Of The Galaxy 3” (and this is of course much easier after the start of the film on Disney+ than back then in the cinema), you will discover that the High Evolutionary is still alive! After all, when the Guardians rescue the animals from the villain’s ship after the battle, Drax is carrying the High Evolutionary on his shoulders:
Drax carries the High Evolutionary
If you want to see for yourself, just check out the movie on Disney+ starting at two hours, 57 minutes and two seconds. In the scene, you can see very clearly that the figure on Drax’s shoulders actually has hands and thus cannot be an animal.
After that, there is no trace of the High Evolutionary in the theatrical version of “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3”, but director and screenwriter James Gunn already confirmed around the theatrical release that it is the Marvel villain. He also explained why Rocket not only spares his creator, but actually saves him:
“It’s the culmination of Rocket’s development […] He goes from being the least empathetic Guardian to the most empathetic Guardian. It would be silly and wrong for him to refuse to kill him and then leave him on an exploding spaceship. “
DELETED SCENE SHOWS HIGH EVOLUTIONARY ALIVE
Meanwhile, a scene already hinted at by James Gunn at the time that didn’t make it into the theatrical version of “GotG Vol. 3” has also been released. In it, the High Evolutionary can be seen being locked in a cell on the Guardians base Knowhere, and also having his face mask temporarily reattached to his destroyed face:
So there may be another reunion with the High Evolutionary at some point, though his story in the MCU has actually been told. Similar is also true for many of the Guardians. How it could still go on, which characters now form the new team and what you need to know about the credits scenes, we have compiled in this article.
