Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 introduced one of the MCU's most sinister villains in Chukwudi Iwuji's High Evolutionary, and some newly released concept art courtesy of Andy Park showcases a more comic-accurate design.
It initially appeared that Marvel Studios and James Gunn had chosen to take some liberties with the source material by giving him a face. However, what we saw in the trailers suggested it might be a mask, leading to the expectation that we'd eventually see The High Evolutionary's robotic visage beneath it. Instead, the threequel went down a very different route.
During one of Vol. 3's flashbacks, the young Rocket attacked his creator and, as we later learned, left him hideously deformed. That actually does line up with the comic books to some extent, and it was a clever way to put a new spin on the twisted face first seen in the pages of Uncanny Avengers.
With that in mind, we're not exactly going to mourn this design being left on the shelf, though it's another terrific piece of work by Park.
Gunn recently confirmed that The High Evolutionary survived the events of this movie, with Drax actually shown carrying him to safety during the final act.
"It’s the whole culmination of Rocket’s journey. His shift comes in that he doesn’t kill him - he goes from being the least empathetic to the most empathetic Guardian," the filmmaker explained. "It seems silly [and] hollow that he’d refuse to kill him [and] then leave him on an exploding ship."
"And, yes, there is a deleted scene. It’s really great actually but it messed up the pacing of the end," he continued. "But you’ll see it in the extras eventually."
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now playing in theaters.
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