Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a movie with a lot of expectations riding on it. Ad while it will be a few weeks before we know what the final verdict is regarding the box office, from a story standpoint, both fans and critics seem to largely be in agreement that Guardians 3 delivers a fitting and satisfying end to the trilogy. James Gunn made many right decisions, including his choice of villain. But it turns out there was at least one other choice.
Responding to fan questions on Twitter, James Gunn confirmed that he considered using the Marvel villain Annihilius rather than the High Evolutionary as Rocket’s creator and the ultimate antagonist of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Gunn answered the question as part of a session of fan responses where he only answered with a yes or no, so he didn’t go into any detail. Still, it certainly does open up some interesting questions about what direction the movie could have gone.
Traditionally, Annihlius in Marvel Comics is a very militant villain who spends most of his time fighting anything he sees as a threat to himself. Assuming that Gunn didn’t make any drastic changes to the character for the movie, this could have led to a much more action-focused Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
At the same time, it seems clear that Rocket’s story was always core to what Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was going to be, and Annihilius was going to be Rocket’s creator in this version of the story, so we may have ultimately gotten the same story that we got, just with a different Marvel character as the instigator. Perhaps Annihlius would have had different motives and goals for what he did; the character is traditionally focused on extending his own life, so perhaps creating Rocket was part of an experiment in that regard. But likely the end result would have been largely the same.
James Gunn talked about wanting to use Annihilius in the MCU as far back as 2016. At the time, since the character was attached to the Fantastic Four franchise, it was seen as part of what was owned at the time by Fox, but following the Disney purchase of Fox, Gunn gained the ability to use the character.
In the end, Gunn settled on the High Evolutionary as the creator of Rocket, a decision which certainly feels like the right one. Of course, the fact that the character was played excellently by Chukwudi Iwuji is a big part of the reason the villain works. If Gunn had found the perfect casting for Annihilius, then we likely have a hard time envisioning any other villain in that place.
This certainly leaves the door open to Annihilius appearing elsewhere in the MCU. The character was originally from a small pocket dimension, but one could see him easily appearing in one of the various multiverses that are at the core of the current MCU story. Perhaps one of the reasons James Gunn ended up not using Annihilius is that Marvel Studios had another idea for the character. Perhaps we'll see him in one of the other Upcoming Marvel movies or series. There is a Fantastic Four movie on the way after all.
