Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have revealed that they needed a character to fulfill a specific role in
Avengers: Infinity War and they were considering
Adam Warlock or the
Silver Surfer to fulfill it. For obvious reasons, Norrin Radd was unavailable, but what about Adam?
Markus commented, "
...we didn't introduce Adam Warlock, because it's a massive backbend and you practically have to make an Adam Warlock movie to introduce him. He just can't walk onscreen. So, there was a brief moment where we were like, Ehhh..., and then we were like-- [He points to the movie's poster.] We have that many characters already! And then there were others we couldn't use. Like, Silver Surfer would have been useful, but we can't touch him. Currently."
McFeely echoed his collaborator but declined to name specific character otherwise he might spoil something from the film's plot. "
I don't want to spoil anything, because then if I tell you that they're not in it, you'll go "Oh, they're not in it." But there are certainly a handful of pretty crazy things that we put in for several drafts and took out."
Previously,
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 helmer James Gunn revealed that his
original treatment for the sequel had a fairly substantial role for Warlock. More recently he gave an indication that
Warlock might not show up in the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie, despite the prominent teaser.