Fans have been wondering when they might see Adam Warlock on the big-screen ever since the first GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY came out, after all, he is one of James Gunn's favourite characters. Unfortunately we won't be seeing Warlock in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 either, but Gunn recently revealed to /Film that the character was originally in an early treatment of the script.
I love Adam Warlock. He’s one of my favorite characters. In all truth, I wrote an early treatment where I had Adam Warlock as a part…this is your big scoop, because I don’t think I’ve told anybody this… It was Adam Warlock. He was a big part of the screenplay and I realized it was one character too many. And I adored the character. I adored what we had done with him. I think we did something really creative and unique with Adam Warlock. But it was one character too many and I didn’t want to lose Mantis and Mantis was more organically part of the movie anyway. So I decided to save him for later.
So when might Adam Warlock make his grand entrance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Well, it's definitely in the works as Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that James Gunn is currently developing Warlock to be used in a "future Marvel cosmic universe film." Gunn clarified that the film in question won't be AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, and although neither Feige nor Gunn confirmed it, it's a pretty safe bet that Warlock will show up in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3, especially as it was recently announced that James Gunn will be back to write and direct the film.
It's still far too early to begin to guess what the third installment of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY will bring us, but James Gunn recently elaborated on his plans for the third film, saying that "we’re going to come to an epic conclusion of who the Guardians are and why they were brought together, and I can’t wait to tell that story to the people."
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 is set for a May 5, 2017 release.