Are We Going to See Adam Warlock in the MCU?
Adam Warlock isn’t one of the best-known Marvel Comics characters out there, but it would be a mistake to say that he is an unknown. After all, he made his debut in the Silver Age of Comic Books, meaning that he has been showing up in comic books as well as other forms of media for four decades and counting. It is interesting to note that there are people who believe that Adam Warlock is set to show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is based on his source material as well as what has been happening with the shared setting.
Why Do People Think that Adam Warlock Is Going to Show Up in the MCU?
To explain why people think that Adam Warlock will be showing up in the MCU based on the source material, it is necessary to explain some things about the character. In short, Adam Warlock started out as a “perfect” human who was created by a collection of evil scientists. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he rebelled, which was followed up by him setting out on his own into the wider universe. In time, Adam Warlock became the custodian of the Soul Stone, which he has been known to use to put the souls of people in the paradisaical realm called the Soul World. One of the character’s best-known allies is Gamora and other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Moreover, one of the character’s best-known enemies is Thanos.
Based on this, it is no wonder that people think that Adam Warlock is bound to show up in the MCU. After all, each of the elements needed to tell his story can already be found in the shared setting. For example, Gamora and the other Guardians of the Galaxy have been a prominent part of the MCU ever since their first movie came out in 2014. Likewise, Thanos’s first appearance was in The Avengers in 2012, though his existence has been hinted for even longer than that. On top of this, the Infinity Stones have been becoming more and more important in the overall narrative of the MCU, though it seems probable that they are set to have their narrative climax with the upcoming Avengers: Endgame.
As for the Soul World, well, some people might remember Thanos winding up in an orange-tinted setting where he met a younger version of his adopted daughter Gamora, which a lot of fans speculated to be the MCU’s version of the realm because of both the color and the context. However, there is no need to remain reliant on said speculation because it was outright confirmed in the director commentaries when the home version of Avengers: Infinity War was released.
Regardless, there is even better reason to expect Adam Warlock to show up in the MCU, which is that he actually came very close to getting into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2. However, the character ended up getting cut because there were already too many characters packed into the movie, meaning that there wasn’t really any room for one more. Even then, Adam Warlock still managed to make it into an end-credit scene, which featured the character Ayesha overlooking the gestation of a new member of the Sovereign race called Adam. Given the relationship between Adam Warlock and Ayesha’s source of inspiration in the comic books, it isn’t exactly difficult to predict that there could be serious conflict between the two even if Ayesha is very different from her comic book counterpart.
Final Thoughts
Previously, James Gunn stated that Adam Warlock was going to show up in a future Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Now, whether that statement remains applicable to the MCU or not remains unclear because Gunn has been fired, which has had an understandably disruptive effect on the making of further Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
However, it isn’t unreasonable to expect Adam Warlock to show up at some point following Avengers: Endgame. After all, the build-up is already there. Moreover, there is a natural place to slot in the character’s relationship with the Soul Stone. Simply put, the Soul World is likely to contain the souls of the people who were killed by Thanos based on its comic book counterpart as well as the appearance of the younger version of Gamora. A significant number of those souls are likely to be freed by the end of Avengers: Endgame, but there could be a need for further clean-up to make sure that everyone and everything is back in place, which is where the appearance of Adam Warlock would make excellent sense.
