James Gunn Chose Nebula Over Adam Warlock For Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

Adam Warlock was originally intended for much more than just a post-credits tease in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Writer and director James Gunn planned for Warlock to have a major role in the film, but adding him to the already large ensemble cast complicated the film’s narrative.

“In the original treatment, even before it became a treatment, Adam Warlock was a major character,” Gunn revealed to IGN. “And the screenplay was just too busy, there were too many characters.”

Gunn realized that he’d have to make a choice about who to include in the movie and who to cut.

“I couldn’t do Nebula justice and Adam Warlock justice and have both in there so I decided to save Adam for another day,” Gunn said.

Nebula ended up with a surprisingly poignant character arc involving her relationship with her sister, Gamora. The two seemed to reconcile by the end of the film, and now Gamora is set on killing their “father,” Thanos, which will lead her into Avengers: Infinity War.

After cutting Warlock from the core of the film, Gunn then had to fight to include his cocoon in one of the movie’s post-credits scenes. In the Marvel Comics universe, Warlock is one of the founding members of Star-Lord’s modern Guardians of the Galaxy team. He is expected to have a significant role in Gunn’s third Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 currently has an 85.18 ComicBook.com Composite Score, the sixth-highest ComicBook.com Composite Score for a comic book movie of all time. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 also has a 3.99 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Rating, giving it the twelfth-highest ComicBook.com user rating among all comic book movies. Let us know what you thought of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 by giving it your own ComicBook.com user rating below.

Set to the backdrop of ‘Awesome Mixtape #2,’ Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel cinematic universe continues to expand.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is written and directed by James Gunn and stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be available digitally on Aug. 8th and on other home media on Aug. 22nd.