During a recent interview with Strip Marvel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 VFX artist Miguel Ángel Acevedo Montserrat confirmed that Chukwudi Iwuji's High Evolutionary does indeed survive the threequel's final battle.
This comes after the actor teased a deleted scene showing his escape from that exploding ship, though Montserrat pointed to a specific moment fans can see him being saved.
When the Guardians are leading all those animals to Knowhere, Drax is actually carrying The High Evolutionary to safety. It's hard to make out given everything else that's going on, but we've checked, and this is indeed correct. Writer and director James Gunn has also since confirmed it to be the case.
In fact, he's even explained why the team rescues the villain after Rocket refused to gun his creator down.
"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," Gunn explains. "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."
As for what became of the MCU's most despicable big bad, the filmmaker revealed that he's been imprisoned on Knowhere. This obviously leaves the door wide open for a return, though Gunn has already closed it when it comes to him making an eventual Vol. 4. Marvel Studios, however, may have its own plans for the team.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now playing in theaters.
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