Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3: Who Is Adam Warlock?

Adam Warlock was hinted at during the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 post credit scene and is now CONFIRMED to appear in Volume 3. Who is he?

At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, we see a cocoon. Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) essentially says she has created something incredible, and she will call him Adam. At this moment in the theater I nearly jumped out of my chair. My mind was BLOWN. I knew right away that she was referring to Adam Warlock, arguably one of the most powerful people in Marvel Comics.

If you are wondering, just who is Adam, allow me to help you out. He is a big deal, and I am going to tell you why you should be excited to see him on the big screen.

His Origin

Adam Warlock was artificially created by the Enclave in a scientific complex on Earth called the Beehive. He was born in a cocoon and was intended to be the “perfect human”. His creators wanted to use him to take over the world. He became aware of this while still in his cocoon. 

Once out, he rebelled and killed the leader of the Enclave. When he left Earth, the energy that he gave off was so great, he killed the rest of his creators.

Getting the Soul Gem

In this travels, he comes across someone known as the High Evolutionary, who is crazy powerful. The High Evolutionary gives Adam the name Warlock, and that is when stuff gets really awesome. He gives Warlock the Soul Gem, one of the six Infinity Gems, which allows him to capture the souls of other beings.

Yup, you read that right. He can capture souls. I told you that Adam joining the MCU was a big deal.

The Universal Church of Truth

One of my favorite story lines involving Adam is when he comes across the Universal Church of Truth. They are basically a cult and are led by the very corrupt Magus. Warlock teams up with Pip the Troll (who I think is going to be played by Peter Dinklage in the MCU), Gamora, and even Thanos himself to take on Magus.

A lot of stuff goes down and basically Adam discovers that Magus is himself from the future. He traveled back in time after going completely insane from using the Soul Gem too much (remember how Peter Quill could barely hold on to it, even with the help of all the Guardians?).

Rewriting his Future

Are you still following me? I know it is a lot to take in, but it gets REALLY good now. So, Adam knows that Magus is a future version of himself. So, how can he defeat him? Well, he has to rewrite the future doesn’t he. He decides to travel to the future, find himself before he goes bananas, and – get this – steals his own soul with the soul gem.

He then goes about his life knowing that one day, he will die at his own hands, but is not exactly sure when it will happen.

Turning on Thanos

Eventually Adam learns of the other Infinity Gems and the fact that Thanos is collecting them all. What is Thanos’ end game? Well, he wants to destroy Earth’s sun. Thanos attacks and nearly kills Pip and Gamora, leaving them in really bad shape. Yea, Thanos is a really bad dude if you didn’t know that already.

Adam takes their souls with the Soul Gem so that he can end their suffering (awwww, right?). Warlock then teams up with Moondragon, Captain Marvel, and the Avengers to take on Thanos. It is at this point, right in the heat of the battle, that his younger self shows up and takes his soul.

He realizes inside the gem is a utopia called Soul World and he reunites with Pip and Gamora. Adam temporarily frees his soul in order to stop Thanos, turning him to stone and saving Earth. Yay! Happy ending right?

Rebirth

Just as with basically any Marvel character, you are never truly dead. Thanos comes back and starts collecting Infinity Gems again (the guy is obsessed with them). Along the way, Silver Surfer and Drax have their souls captured in the Soul Gem. Silver Surfer meets up with Adam in Soul World and tells him what is going on. Adam transports his soul, along with the souls of Pip and Gamora to new bodies.

He teams up with some of Earth’s finest superheroes and defeats Thanos again. In doing so, he obtains the Infinity Gauntlet (which stores all the Infinity Gems) and basically becomes the supreme ruler of the universe (kind of like what the Enclave had planned for him all along).

Distributing the Gems

Adam knows that he goes crazy in a timeline from power, so he, along with the Living Tribunal, decides to distribute the Infinity Gems to others to hold on to and keep safe. Before doing so, he purges himself of good and evil, creating a perfectly logical being.

His good and evil entities become physical beings – the good becoming The Goddess, and the evil becoming – you guessed it – another Magus. Pip, Gamora, Drax, Moondragon, and (get this guys) Thanos are chosen to hold five of the gems. Thanos is “reformed”, so don’t worry… Anyways, Adam decides to hold on the Soul Gem himself.

Good thing too because he uses it to trap both The Goddess and Magus when they threaten the universe.

Joining the Guardians of the Galaxy

His story doesn’t end there. He joins the Guardians of the Galaxy a little bit later on and is needed to repair the space time continuum. In doing so he becomes Magus, yet again. He leads the Universal Church of Truth, again, and ends up being killed during a mission.

The Church brings him back as a child (it is actually a REALLY great story line) but the Annihilators capture him and imprison him in a cocoon for safe keeping. Then a lot goes down, not necessarily worth talking about right now (also, I don’t want to ruin a potential Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 story line).

Long story short, Adam is back to his old self and decides to go on adventures with Pip, sans the Soul Gem.

MCU Integration

I am over the moon excited that Adam Warlock will be a part of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, as James Gunn confirmed. It would make a lot of sense to see him in Infinity War, and maybe we will get another end scene with him featured, but he deserves to be taken on fully by James Gunn.

If I am being honest, I really hope to see him take on (and possibly take down) Thanos. James did say that Volume 3 will come AFTER Infinity War, so I am curious to see how it all plays out with the Soul Stone.

UPDATE: As of October 2021 James Gunn has CONFRIMED that actor Will Poulter will play Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3. Check out this interview with James Gunn for hints on what story line is to come!