Guardians of the Galaxy director shoots down a rumored Galactus easter egg. While the MCU has its roots in the grounded world of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, Thor showed the studio dipping its toes into the more cosmic side of their universe that they fully embraced with 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Since then, the studio has invested even more with cosmic properties like Captain Marvel, Eternals, and the upcoming Fantastic 4.

One of Marvel’s most famous cosmic villains is Galactus, and many, including the director of Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, is excited to see the devourer of worlds join the MCU. Fans have gotten accustomed to Marvel Studios having a long-term plan and often look for details in past films for hints of future stories that could be coming in future films. Combine that with the fact that Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn says there is still one mysterious easter egg that nobody has found yet in his first MCU film, a popular fan theory is that it hints at Galactus.

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James Gunn has shot down those rumors since Marvel Studios didn’t have the film rights to the character. In a recent exchange on Twitter, when a fan asked Gunn if the birth of Galactus was hinted at when the Collector explains the origin of the Infinity Stones as it features a similar visual, Gunn says it was just a coincidence and not a hint at Galactus. Gunn points out that in 2014, 20th Century Fox still owned the film rights to Galactus, and he couldn’t set up a character the studio didn’t own.

Part of the rumor has some basis in early MCU development. Shortly after Marvel Studios announced they were developing Guardians of the Galaxy as a film in 2012, it was reported that the studio was offering a deal to 20th Century Fox to extend the Daredevil film rights in exchange for the characters of Galactus and the Silver Surfer, reportedly to be featured in their cosmic film. Fox decided to let the Daredevil rights lapse instead, hoping to integrate Galactus and the Silver Surfer into their Fantastic 4 reboot. However, 2015’s Fantastic Four was a box office bomb, and eventually, Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2017, and the characters became available to use in the MCU.

Marvel Studios has sold themselves as having a plan, but part of the studio success has been the ability to adapt and retroactively make elements canon even when they were not originally intended. While the original intention of the scene in Guardians of the Galaxy may not have been to set up Galactus, the studio could later decide to make it the character’s origin similar to the little boy in Iron Man 2 being Peter Parker, despite the fact that Iron Man 2 opened in 2010 when the studio was in development on The Amazing Spider-Man films. While not confirmed for any appearance yet, given Galactus powers and the threat he poses to the universe, he is likely to show up in a future MCU project to battle The Eternals, The Fantastic 4, The Avengers, or any other hero.

Source: James Gunn/Twitter

Key Release Dates
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  • Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)Release date: Dec 17, 2021
  • Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)Release date: Jul 08, 2022
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)Release date: May 06, 2022
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/Black Panther 2 (2022)Release date: Nov 11, 2022
  • The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (2023)Release date: Feb 17, 2023
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)Release date: May 05, 2023
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)Release date: Jul 28, 2023
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Richard Fink
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Richard Fink is a news writer for Screen Rant. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2016 with a degree in Film and Media Production. He loves the finer things in life, like cold Diet Coke on a hot summer day. Richard is a fan of all things Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and Film History.

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