Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Concept Art Reveals Comic-Accurate High Evolutionary Design

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 made The High Evolutionary one of the most fearsome villains in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. While movie fans overwhelmingly love what actor Chukwudi Iwuji did with The High Evolutionary, some new concept art from the films reveals that we could’ve also gotten a more comic-accurate version of the villain. 

Check out the comic-accurate High Evolutionary concept art for Guardians of the Galaxy 3 – via Marvel artist Andy Park: 

“Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 CONCEPT ART! The fun part of concept art is exploring the possibilities. This was one of my 1st passes at High Evolutionary many years ago during preproduction. Much fun was had in these explorations”. –Andy Park

While there is clearly more purple color incorporated into this concept of The High Evolutionary – but the key distinction here is that he is wearing the full metallic mask/helmet that the comic version of High Evolutionary always had. 

It would’ve almost been an easier task for James Gunn and his team to create this fully-masked High Evolutionary than it was putting a mask of Chukwudi Iwuji’s face over the actor’s face – but it would’ve been nowhere near as impactful. First, the alteration between seeing Iwuji’s face in Rocket Raccoon’s flashbacks and High Evolutionary’s emotionless mask in the present would’ve been jarring. Second, it’s clear from Chukwudi Iwuji’s performance that Gunn was better off displaying the actor’s every facial tick and mannerism, as his performance was so wonderfully subtle and layered. 

(SPOILERS) The design for High Evolutionary that Marvel Studios and James Gunn ultimately chose also added something truly horrific to the moment when Chukwudi Iwuji’s High Evolutionary finally gets “unmasked.” The fact that the High Evolutionary wore a replica of his face to hide the true damage that Rocket (an “inferior” creation) did to him, speaks to the villain’s egomaniacal vanity – while also serving as a nice metaphor for the true, ugly, inferior creature High Evolutionary is, due to his sociopathic view and lack of any real, fundamental, connections like friendship. 

The High Revolutionary Will Return

Chukwudi Iwuji teased ComicBook’s Phase Zero podcast with the fact that High Evolutionary may not be as dead as we think: 

“Well, let me just put it this way. I’m hoping you’ll see an extended version or maybe an alternate ending, you know, that we certainly did film,” Iwuji told us. “I mean the whole point in Marvel is that unless you see someone die they haven’t necessarily died and even if they do die what does that mean in the multiverse, right? But, the point is that Rocket doesn’t shoot me. They make a point of saying why don’t you kill him and he says no, I’m not going to kill him. And you don’t actually see me go down with the ship. So, I’ll just leave it at that.”

James Gunn has since confirmed that an Easter Egg in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 was fact: Drax (Dave Bautista) did in fact carry High Evolutionary off his own ship before it explode – and now the villian is “Imprisoned on Knowhere.” 

If (When) The High Evolutionary returns to the MCU, his mangled face will need a new mask – so there’s still time for that comics-accurate look to make its debut. So long as we can see his eyes, there’s no doubt that Chukwudi Iwuji would still deliver.