James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 premiered at number one at the box office this week. Fans have been waiting for the final chapter in Gunn’s Guardians trilogy, that we almost didn’t get. Thankfully, that error was righted, and now we can see the scope of Gunn’s story. As usual, the film is loaded to the brim with Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 easter eggs and references. What did we find?
WARNING!!!! There will be spoilers for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3!
In this entry, we get Rocket’s origin as the High Evolutionary created him through experimentation on a baby raccoon. Yes, we finally can confirm he actually is a raccoon, and he even adopts his comic name of Rocket Raccoon. When he is placed in his cage, we see a few other experiments that have been created using small animals. There is a bunny with mechanical spider legs named Floor, a walrus with wheels called Teefs, and most importantly, an otter with robotic arms named Lylla.
In the comics, she is the love of Rocket’s life, which is the same in this movie. Sadly, their romance doesn’t last long as she is killed as Rocket tries to free his friends. Interestingly, this is not the first time we have heard of Lylla. In the first Guardians Of The Galaxy, when Rocket is taking his mug shot after being arrested on Zandar, they have Lylla listed as one of Rocket’s known associates in his bio.
Speaking of Lylla, if her voice sounded familiar, that would be because she is voiced by Linda Cardellini. MCU Fans would be more familiar with her as Laura Barton, the wife of Hawkeye. She’s not the only MCU alum who returns to voice a brand-new character. Judy Greer from the Ant-Man films voices the scary-looking War Pig. A pig android created by the High Evolutionary who is hunting down Rocket while he is near death. Lastly, The Suicide Squad cast member Pete Davidson showed up to play the alien Phlektik. He actually ended up on set and got to play the character for the short scene. It’s fun to see Gunn bring these actors in for these Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 easter eggs.
We get to see a series of characters playing a game of poker on Knowhere. Kraglin and Cosmo are having some issues between them but still attend the game, where they continue to bicker. Also, sitting at the table are two familiar characters from the Guardians films. Howard the Duck is still hanging around Knowhere and hoping to win some credits. Sitting next to him is The Broker, who we met in the first film when Peter was trying to offload the orb that contained the power stone. An interesting piece of trivia is that the actor Christopher Fairbank that plays The Broker has a big part in superhero movie history. He played the thief that Michael Keaton grabbed in the 1989 Batman. When he asks, “What are you?”, Keaton utters his famous line, “I’m Batman.”
James Gunn is always open with his inspirations for a lot of his movies. Sometimes he likes to sprinkle some of these into his current works, which includes this film. The Guardians need to break into a company named Orgoscope. In order to be dropped off on the outside of the flesh-covered lab, they don some colorful space suits. Gunn has gone on record saying these are inspired by the suits worn by the crew in 2001: A Space Odyssey. When we see the High Evolutionary, there is another 2001 reference as a young girl jogs in a small circle which is very much like we first see the human characters in the film.
During Warlock’s attack on Knowhere, we see Groot get his body destroyed. Warlock is just too powerful for him, and Groot is only left with a head. He quickly grows four spider-like feet. This visual is a reference to a scene from the John Carpenter-directed film The Thing. A head sprouts spider-like legs and begins to run around before a flame thrower destroys it.
As we learn more about the High Evolutionary, we discover he has been trying to perfect evolution in the universe. He has created a lot of species of aliens in order to test this out. One we had already met is the Sovereign. A couple more that get name-dropped are the Xeronians and the Ani-Men. In the comics, the Xeronians aren’t connected to the High Evolutionary. They are a peaceful alien race who try to avoid conflict. The Ani-Men was a name used by a couple of supervillain teams. Still, the High Evolutionary did have a group dubbed the Animen, whom he used to sabotage the lab of the villain genetic scientist The Jackal.
We see more Abilisks in the basement of the High Evolutionary, where some of the Guardians are imprisoned. The last time we saw one was in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2. The crew had been hired to protect a battery hub as the creatures love to eat energy. Now there are multiple of them, which should mean the team is in trouble. Thanks to Mantis, she is able to connect with the creatures, and the Guardians ride them out of their prison. Mantis also leaves Knowhere and takes them with her.
Peter finally decides to return home to Earth to find out if he has any family left. We see that his grandfather from the first film is still alive and learn that his name is Jason Quill. This is a fun nod to Peter’s origins in the comics. While in the MCU, we find out that his father is Ego, in the comics, it is actually a character named J’Son who is the king of a planet named Spartax. It’s fun to see the name still appear in Peter’s origin, even if it’s from his grandfather.
As the credits finish rolling, we see a graphic stating, ‘The Legendary Star-Lord Will Return.’ This is a nod to a comic book series called Legendary Star-Lord. This series tells the stories of Peter Quill after he left the Guardians for a time. He rules his father’s home planet of Spartax, is engaged to Kitty Pryde of the X-Men, and encounters Thanos. More than likely, anything forward will probably use the name Legendary Star-Lord, but it’s a fun series worth picking up.
During the final post-credits scene, we see Peter having breakfast while his grandfather is reading the newspaper. The giant headline on the front of the paper reads “Alien Abduction: Kevin Bacon Tells All.” It looks like Kevin Bacon is ready to tell everyone what life was like up in space for Christmas. This references the events of The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special.
What Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 Easter Eggs did you spot? Let us know in the comments.