So what was going on at the End of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?

SPOIlERS FOR GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 AND ALL CURRENT MARVEL FILMS

It's that time again, folks. Time for me to explain what all your nerd friends were freaking about during the credits of a Marvel movie but just left you confused. It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.

Thankfully, Marvel Studios and James Gunn decided to make the wait through the scroll of names a bit more bearable by sprinkling a couple post-credits stingers throughout. It's a trick I hope they use again, the stingers were like a nice after dinner mint and very fun. Not all of these contain hints to future movies though, so I'm expanding the format a little here. I'll still be looking at possible sequel teases, but I'll also just explain the Marvel easter eggs and shout outs. Stuff that's not vital in the overall continuity, but are interesting in their own right.

Last warning for spoilers and here we go,



Like I said, we had five stingers this time around but they aren't all important. Two of them are just funny joke scenes. One involves Yondu's right hand man Kraglin (played by director James Gunn's brother Sean BTW) taking a crack at using Yondu's whistle-controlled arrow and the disastrous consequences there of. Another is about Star-Lord getting into an argument with a now Teenage Groot acting like a stereotypical moody teen. Both are funny, but not quite essential.

We'll save the one stinger with an actual sequel tease for the end, so let's just talk about the fun shout-outs first. The first involves Sylvester Stallone as Ravager captain Stakar Ogord, who the film established earlier had a past relationship with Star-Lord' surrogate father Yondu, assembling a team of other Ravager captains we'd seen during Yondu's funeral scene earlier. Given that these random characters are played by the likes of Ving Rhames and Michelle Yeoh, it's safe to say they're actual named Marvel characters. Stacker says it's sad that it took Yondu's funeral for them to all get back together, but that they should reform their original team in his honor. The others readily agree.

The original Guardians of the Galaxy.

Now, this doesn't sound like much. Some cameos at most. But it's actually a really fun easter egg. Because you see, Yondu and these other characters were the original Guardians of the Galaxy in the comics. Yeah, a lot of people don't know this but the Guardians most people are familiar with; the team of Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, etc., are actually based on the successful reboot of the original comic from the 70s. Whether this team will interact with the better known team in future films is uncertain, though I can't imagine Stallone, Rhames, and Yeoh wouldn't be up for it, but it's a fun shout-out to the history of the comic nonetheless.

For the curious, that original team was made up of:

-Stakar Ogord (Stallone) AKA Starhawk, An alien archaeologist given flight and energy powers by an alien god
-Aleta Ogord (Yeoh), wife of Starhawk who shares his powers
-Charlie-27 (Rhames), the sole survivor of a planet with heavy gravity devastated by an alien race called the Badoon.
-Martinex (Michael Rosenbaum), a crystalline alien lifeform.
-Mainframe (voiced by Miley Cyrus, no really), A robot similar to the Vision
-Krugarr, An alien sorcerer. That's why he does the Dr. Strange glowy magic circle thing with his hands.
-Yondu, (Michael Rooker), alien archer, bounty hunter, & freedom fighter.

The next fun shout-out scene involves the film's obligatory Stan Lee cameo. Earlier in the film, we saw Stan stranded on an asteroid in a space suit talking to some tall bald guys in blue capes with white eyes. The movie's final stinger picks up on this as the bald guys apparently get sick of Stan's stories and try to ditch him, only for Stan to point out that they're his ride back to Earth. Now, any Marvel Zombie worth their salt will immediately recognize these as Watchers, one of the oldest parts of the Marvel cosmos. Watchers are a strange alien race that are scattered throughout the galaxy observing the development of intelligent life. The most prominent Watcher in the comics is definitely Uatu, Earth's Watcher who lives on a special habitable area on the moon. He famously broke the Watchers' strict policy of non-interference with the planets they observe to warn the Fantastic Four about the coming of Galactus and has since acted as a kind of warning system for whenever bad cosmic shit is about to happen to Earth.

Utah the Watcher.

Now this whole setup is most definitely just a funny shout-out to the comics, but the reason it has people talking is because of its connection to a popular fan theory about Stan Lee's cameos. How is it possible for Stan to appear all over the world (or worlds in this case) miles and sometimes decades apart, but doesn't seem to age or change at all? How is he always around when superhero stuff happens? Well, the theory is that Stan isn't just making cameos. He's actually playing Uatu the Watcher and the reason he keeps popping up at the right moment is because he's watching all the events unfold. It's a fun idea, and nothing in the movies themselves contradicts it, but before now it's just been a fan notion. Stan's cameo in Vol.2 gives it a little creedence, as he tells the Watchers about when he was a FedEx guy (referencing his cameo in Civil War), but unfortunately it's clear Stan isn't a Watcher. The spacesuit attests to that, as well as the fact that the other Watchers try to ditch him. So it's probably just a sly wink to the fans.

But now we come to the real deal, the sequel tease. I'll lay out the scene in full. We open on the private chambers of the High Priestess Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) who's been acting as the secondary antagonist throughout. Ayesha is clearly distraught after her latest defeat at the Guardians' hands. Her usually perfectly coiffed hair is a mess and she's got a thousand-yard stare going on. An attendant comes in to tell Ayesha the Sovereign council requests her presence. Ayesha says they want to chastise her for failing to live up to the Sovereign's reputation of perfection, but that it doesn't matter. She's already working on a new plan to destroy the Guardians once and for all. She directs her attendant's attention to a FAMILIAR LOOKING COCOON POD. Ayesha explains that she's genetically engineering a new member of the Sovereign, one specifically made to kill any who insult them. The scene ends on a close-up of Ayesha saying she'll name this new Sovereign ADAM.

Adam Warlock bursting forth
from his cocoon.

Okay, if you've read any of my other Marvel explanation and speculation posts, you're familiar with Adam Warlock. If not, I'll explain again. Adam Warlock is another of Marvel's earliest cosmic characters. He was a genetically engineered "perfect being" who wandered the galaxy searching for meaning and for a while, was the closest thing Thanos had to an arch-enemy. This plot thread of him being created for evil purposes is pretty close to his comics origin, though there he was made on Earth not in space by aliens. Don't be surprised if he turns good and joins the Guardians in his next appearance, as he turned good in the comics too and is one of the more famous and powerful members of the reboot Guardians team.

I'm not surprised by this at all. As soon as it was announced that Elizabeth Debicki was playing Ayesha, I knew Adam Warlock was going to show up in some form. See, in the comics Ayesha was basically the evil female version of Adam Warlock, but that's not important. Likely, this means Ayesha and the Sovereign are going to come to the forefront as villains in the next Guardians movie as opposed to being on the back burner like in Vol. 2. But how well that bodes for our misfit heroes I can't say, since they've got an Infinity War to get through first.

Which brings us to another wrinkle. One of the more famous things Adam Warlock is known for in the comics is having an Infinity Stone in his forehead. You know, those things Thanos is looking for so he can become God. Specifically, Adam has the Soul Stone. Which is the only one that hasn't shown up in the movies yet. And Thanos is the bad guy in Infinity War, the next movie the Guardians are supposed to show up in. Huh...

Now, I only bring this up as a possibility. I highly doubt Adam Warlock is going to show up in Infinity War at all, let alone get an Infinity Stone stuck in his head. Lord knows, there's enough shit that's going to happen in that two-part clusterfuck already. So Marvel will probably play it safe and hold off on this particular plot thread until Guardians 3. But who knows! Marvel does have a habit of taking premises and loose threads that could be whole movies on their own and blowing through them in the first ten minutes of the first act.

So that's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2! These and the Thor movies are probably my favorite Marvel movies because I can get deep into the lore and esoterica like this. I'll see you after Spider-Man: Homecoming and until then, Make Mine Marvel!