One of Marvel’s Best Villains Almost Appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

As you know by now, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 features the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) as its Big Bad, a long-time cosmic character that’s had a terrifying history of the experimentation and torture of animals. Though Iwuji’s performance in the movie will likely lead to the character being hailed as one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s best villains, there was a time where the character wasn’t even going to be in the film.

In a recent Q&A on Twitter, Guardians helmer James Gunn confirmed he once considered Annihilus as the film’s villain.

View on X

It’s not the first time Gunn has expressed an interest in the Fantastic Four villain. In a Facebook Q&A back in 2017, the director said he would have likely used the character as a villain if Marvel Studios had the rights to the character. At the time, the Fantastic Four stable was still owned by 20th Century Fox.

“I think that there’s a good chance that if we had all of those characters—I really like the character of Annihilus,” Gunn said. “And there’s a chance that I would have done Annihilus as a villain in one of the movies.”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Cast

The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 synopsis reads, “Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill must rally his team to defend the universe and protect one of their own. If the mission is not completely successful, it could possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.”

James Gunn wrote and directed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The movie star Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Zoe Saldaña as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, with Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot and Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Chukwudi Iwuji as The High Evolutionary, Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, and Maria Bakalova as the voice of Cosmo.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now playing in movie theaters.