Last year, Marvel Studios surprised almost everyone when they unleashed a film that featured a whacky lineup of space heroes upon the world. Guardians of the Galaxy was a film that featured a wide array of weird characters, from Groot the talking tree, to Howard the Duck. With such a broad spectrum of oddball personalities to choose from, who else could end up joining the Guardians in the future? Well, there are plenty of options and for some f those, the groundwork has already been laid. On top of that, we can always speculate to our heart's content as to who might end up on the team in the future. So, just who are these potential new Guardians and what are they all about?
First up we have to take note of those who most definitely will not be joining the team, due to rights issues or other catastrophes brought about by Marvel's near bankruptcy. So far, there's only one casualty on this list and that is the character of Bug. A fun-loving, spear-wielding, joke-cracking insectoid being who just so happens to belong to a toy company. Much to our dismay, of course. We learned the hard way that we'd never see Bug join the Guardians. He was supposed to be a founding member of the team in last year's movie, only for the issues with the film rights to bring Bug's chances at superstardom to a rather untiemly demise. Still, I think that throwing a giant, bipedal, talking insect into the mix may have truly pushed people not to bother seeing the movie... What? Oh right yeah, Ant-Man.
Well, the bugs are normal size, it's Ant-Man that shrinks and makes the bugs look big! So screw you, overly judgemental fanboys! Moving swiftly on, we're here to talk about the Guardians of the Galaxy after all. The first character we'll take a look at is something of an essential character when it comes to the upcoming events of the MCU. He's bold, brash, kind-hearted and golden-skinned. He's got a green thing in the middle of his forehead. His costume got better over time. It's Adam Warlock.
Adam's future in the MCU may hang in the balance at present. He's got an Infinity Stone in his forehead most of the time, but now Vision's ticking that box too. Adam strives to maintain all life in the universe and ensure its survival. Vision ticks that box too. After watching Age of Ultron, I couldn't help but worry. Will Warlock ever appear in the MCU? Will we ever see one of the greatest characters ever to leap from the mind of man brought to the silver screen? Was his cocoon just an Easter egg? Even though we've seen it twice?! Who knows, for now we can only hope that this amazing character gets his dues. After all, James Gunn has set the story and cast for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and we're still in the dark about everything. For all we know, Adam's already a sure thing, but we'll have to wait and see. Next up...
The Vietnamese heroine, Mantis. I've just introduced the first problem with Mantis and that's the fact that her origins lie here on Earth. However, Marvel have shown their quite willing to deviate both massively and minutely from the source material, tweeking little things to make different characters more suited to the environment in which they're introduced to us. Mantis is a key member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Her ability to see the future was actually the driving force behind the team's early 2008 story. On top of that though, her and Bug were quite friendly with one another, given their insectoid appearances and whatnot, so that could be a factor in favour of her not appearing in the sequel to Guardians. Nevertheless, nothing makes a movie more interesting than a character who can see the future. Look at Harry Potter. Nobody gave a toss about what was happening until the third movie came around and that crazy woman scared the life out of everyone in the cinema with that jump scare prophecy-spewing moment. Again, we're going to move on and this time I'm going in yet another new direction.
Major Victory, AKA Vance Astro, the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy of the future. Folks, the countdown to Infinity War has begun. There's very little time to get all the Infinity Stones established and ready to be acquired by Thanos the Mad Titan. So, how better to introduce the Time Stone than by turning Guardians of the Galaxy 2 into a time travel movie. Heck, bring 'em all in, the whole team of the year 3000. Funnily enough, the apparent production title for the sequel is Guardians 3000, although I doubt that's' true. Marvel are never that obvious with their production titles. Still, time travel could easily introduce us to a slew of new Guardians, but I'd love to see Major Victory more-so than Martinex, Charlie-27, Nikki or Starhawk. Just because of the Captain America shield. What a great pull factor that'd be for an audience, eh? Moving onward once again, humble reader.
Moondragon is a character who, once again, could do with a bit of origin tampering. mainly due to the fact that she's Drax's daughter in the comics, but unless Drax has had memory implants, that's not the case in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She's a key member of the team, much like Mantis, and she also has some ties to Thanos. Which, given the nature of the MCU thus far, can only be a benefit to the over-arcing story of the thing. I'll throw in that it'd be great to see the Vell family in the MCU. Phyla's relationship with Moondragon has always been something of a highlight of Guardians comics and I'd hate to think that Mar-Vell will never make a cinematic appearance. Genis can go [frick] himself though. Nobody likes Genis. So, onward we go to the final member that I want to see join the team in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. It could only be...
Blackjack O'Hare! Okay, yeah, I'm kidding, Blackjack O'Hare would never in a million years show up in a Marvel movie. In any capacity. In actuality, I'm gonna go ahead and say this guy. He's Marvel's answer to... well nobody, he's pretty much just a side character nobody cares about, but I love him.
Quasar's a character that's close to my heart, purely because he and Nova are Marvel cosmic's answer to Joey and Chandler. I think that's my first Friends reference on this site. Anyway, Quasar'd be amazing to see on the big srcreen, especially alongside the Guardians. His dad was actually referenced on an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. last season, which makes me think that maybe he might show up on AoS of all places. Wherever he may rear his head, I just want to see Quasar in the MCU, kicking ass and taking names.
What do you guys think though? Who would you like to see take up arms with the Guardians of the Galaxy in their next movie? Be sure to let me know in the comments section below and also don't forget to check out my Marvel Cinematic Universe Theory, in case you haven't already. And yes, I will be shamelessly plugging that at the end of every article I write about MCU related matters from now on.