The Marvel Cinematic Universe is famed for the passion and commitment of the men and women who are entrusted with directing its movies, and few are more passionate than Guardians of the Galaxy helmsman James Gunn. Notorious for saturating his movies with in-jokes, homages and Easter Eggs, Gunn has spent the last four years teasing fans that there still remains one Easter Egg hidden in the original GOTG movie that nobody has managed to find yet. But all that might have finally changed this week…
A YouTuber named Second Son has spotted what they think is the final Easter egg in question. And it’s a BIG ONE. One that could potentially have a huge affect on how the future of the MCU plays out. Because this isn’t an existing character’s distant relative, some mystical weapon or a costume change. This is potentially the biggest and baddest villain that Marvel have even conceived…
Cast your minds back to the 2014 film, specifically the section where Benicio Del Toro’s Collector relates the origin story of the Infinity Stones to the Guardians. As he speaks, the camera cuts to a flashback sequence of a Celestial destroying an unknown planet. The ancient god is wielding a gigantic power staff, which emits the purple energy of the Power Stone. As he scours the plant of all remaining life, a seemingly solitary face is seen screaming off to one side, and it’s this apparent survivor that Second Son’s theory is focused on.
The flashback sequence is almost identical to a famous comic panel from a 1997 X-Men story, which tells the origin story of none other than famed marvel bad guy, Galactus. Originally a mortal man named Galen, Galactus was the sole survivor of the destruction of his home-world of Taa. As the Universe was slowly cleared of all life by the old gods, Galactus swore vengeance, and evolved into the omnipotent bad guy that fans know him as, to fight against the beings who had killed his people.
At first glance, it’s easy enough to pour scorn on the argument, and counter that the person and the planet being shown whilst the Collector speaks could be any one of a number of big Marvel characters. But there is some evidence to support Second Son’s argument that what is being shown here is indeed Galactus’s origin story.
Firstly, the point that it is the purple Power Stone being used in the sequence is relevant because purple is the color most commonly associated with the infamous planet-consuming villain. There’s also the fact that the staff used by be Celestial bears more than a passing resemblance to Galactus’s iconic headgear.
The recent mega-deal between Disney and Fox has now made the arrival of Galactus and the Fantastic Four in the MCU a reality. The fact that the sequence created by Gunn is four years old suggests that if this is the notorious Easter Egg in question, this was something he would have come up with to please die-hard fans, rather than actually laying the foundations for Galactus to join the franchise.
Update: James Gunn recently posted this on Twitter:
Getting lots of messages about Galactus in the Collector scenes. No, he’s not there in any way. https://t.co/SNPDGMO979
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 15, 2018
Keep searching.