Will Adam Warlock Return? MCU Future Explained

After six years of waiting, James Gunn’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ was finally released last May, and it became one of the most successful Marvel projects in this post-Endgame era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the movie featured the return of everyone’s favorite characters, it also introduced some brand-new characters to the franchise, including Adam Warlock, who Will Poulter portrayed. Warlock’s appearance was first teased in 2017’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,’ and now that he officially joined the franchise, there’s a question if he has a future in it. In this article, we’ll try to answer whether Adam Warlock will return in the future of the MCU.

While there are no official announcements at this moment, the mid-credit scene of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,’ in which Adam Warlock is seen as the newest member of the team, indicates that Warlock will return when this new team of Guardians, with Rocket Raccoon as the leader, returns to the franchise. It’s currently unknown if that’ll happen in some new ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movie or some upcoming crossover movie, but everything indicates that ‘Vol. 3’ served only as an introduction to Adam Warlock, while bigger things for him are most likely planned for future installments.

It was known from the beginning that ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ would be James Gunn’s last Marvel project. So, if we see more of Guardians in the MCU, Gunn wouldn’t be involved, which begs the question of how the characters will be handled from now. Sure, Gunn didn’t invent Guardians, but he’s surely the most responsible for the popularity they gained since their big screen debut in 2014. Gunn was also involved in writing Guardians’ dialogues in Avengers: ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ so seeing how these characters would be handled without him on board will surely be interesting.

Adam Warlock definitely isn’t meant to be a one-time character!

Adam Warlock isn’t an A-list Marvel character, but he’s definitely known among hardcore Marvel fans. He was first introduced in 1967. when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created him as the character known only as Him before Roy Thomas and Gil Kane renamed him Adam Warlock in 1972. In the source material, Warlock is known as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but since he has a history of fighting Thanos, some fans of the comics had a theory that the first teaser for him in ‘Vol. 2’ was to set up his appearance in ‘Infinity War’ or ‘Endgame,’ which ultimately didn’t happen.

It makes a lot of sense for Adam Warlock to debut in the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ movie. However, given the current state of the team, when Gamora, Nebula, Mantis, Drax, and Star-Lord left the team (Star-Lord was announced to return in the future, but more about that later), everything points that Gunn wanted only to introduce Adam Warlock, make him a member of the new Guardians team, and then leave him for other writers and directors to handle his future character arc.

Adam Warlock was introduced as a very powerful but small-minded antagonist who the Sovereign created as a weapon against the Guardians. Despite his great power, Warlock was portrayed as a little child since he was pulled from his birth chamber earlier and didn’t have time to develop his intelligence.

That creates plenty of room for the character’s growth in future MCU installments, especially now, when he joined the team. He’s already physically powerful, and once he is sufficiently developed, he’ll surely be a great ally against whichever villain Guardians face off next. From what we know, it could be Kang, but it remains to be seen when we’re going to see him again.

Will ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 4’ happen?

Even though ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ was announced to conclude this trilogy, the movie still finished in a way that its ending can lead to further adventures for some of our favorite heroes. Even though a few members said farewell to the team, including Star-Lord, the mid-credit scene depicted a new team, led by Rocket Raccoon, as they’re getting embarking on their next adventure.

What’s interesting, the ending of the movie’s post-credit scene said: “The Legendary Star-Lord will return,” and not “Guardians of the Galaxy will return.” So, even though Star-Lord left the team, we are now expecting him to be back, which we wouldn’t have expected if the post-credit scene hadn’t said so. On the other hand, we have this new Guardians team, and their return wasn’t officially announced anywhere, but the way ‘Vol. 3’ finished for them, the return is definitely expected.

That begs the question about potential future installments featuring the Guardians team. The easiest and most likely guess is that they will team up with Earth’s mightiest heroes again in ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,’ since it’s hard to predict when could the potential ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 4’ be released, given the MCU’s packed schedule.

One thing that is certain: if ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 4’ happens, don’t expect that James Gunn will be involved with it in any way, which already creates a certain amount of fear on how this team would look without Gunn to write and direct them. Are we expecting to see Adam Warlock in the MCU again? Yes! Are we expecting that ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 4’ will happen? No, but it’s not impossible.

The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ trilogy is now streaming on Disney+.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you think we’ll see Adam Warlock in the MCU again? If so, when and in which project? Let us know in the comments.

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