Final Guardians Of The Galaxy Easter Egg Has Been Partially Discovered According To James Gunn

Five years after Guardians of the Galaxy made its way into theaters, director James Gunn told fans that the elusive final "Easter egg" has been "partially" discovered by a detail-oriented fan who knows who they are. The existence of an undiscovered secret hidden in the film has been something that has tantalized and frustrated fans since the film's home video release, when Gunn told reporters that there remained one big Easter egg that nobody had spotted. Subsequent attempts to discover the Easter egg in question usually ended with Gunn shooting down various fan theories. Back in October, a fan on Reddit thought they had figured out part of the puzzle, which seems like a plausible candidate for who he's talking about.

"Short Version: The Easter egg is the identity and Celestial nature of Peter's father (and grandfather) well before GOGTGv2," the Redditor explained. You can check out their full explanation in the post located here. If that post is a "too long, didn't read" scenario for you, here's the nuts and bolts. Back in June, YouTuber MasterTainment (that's the MT the Redditor is referring to) shared a theory that the coordinates for Knowhere could be decoded to read either "Meredith Quill BD" or Meredith Quill X" -- in either case, the decode refers to Peter Quill's father. With Knowhere being the head of a Celestial and the coordinates referring to Peter's dad, his father could be a Celestial. Add to that the decode of The Dark Aster's coordinates coming out to something like "this is mom's cancer". He also noted that the Celestial Eson the Searcher can be seen in the Collector's video destroying a planet with the Power stone staff. It's an action that seems out of character for the Searcher which is something that MasterTainment said must be significant.

If that is the partial solving, the Redditor has a few more details to add that might just fully solve things. They note that the "this is mom's cancer" decoding of The Dark Aster may be spot on because Aster is also a term in cellular biology -- a star-shaped structure formed during cell reproduction. When you add "dark" to that, it could be a reference to something sinister -- such as Peter's dad giving his mom cancer. Also, Eson the Searcher isn't the only Eson in Marvel. The other one is J'Son's father. In comics, J'Son is Peter Quill's father which would make Eson his grandfather. While it's Ego who is J'Son's father in Guardians of the Galaxy, that does not mean previous generations will be changed wholesale.

The takeaway? The Easter egg in Guardians of the Galaxy is that it subtly revealed the big bad of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Ego was the son of Eson, a Celestial whose head is now Knowhere (hence the coordinates decoding the way they do). Ego is able to survive without his head -- which is why his head became nowhere -- because he's immortal so long as his brain isn't destroyed. And, as a bonus, if this breakdown is accurate then it may also give some clues to the big Easter egg of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 since Gunn has said that the two are similar in nature. That means if the big Easter eggs are connected to the big bad's of future movies, Gunn may have hidden clues about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in Vol. 2. When these puzzles were starting to be (at least partially) solved, Gunn had been fired, but knowing now that he will direct Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 and that his script will obviously be used, revisiting some old theories and Easter eggs might be worthwhile.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 will go into production following the completion of Gunn's The Suicide Squad for Warner Bros. Spider-Man: Far From Home is still in theaters, and Avengers: Endgame was just made available on digital services. Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.