Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Recreates a Classic Painting, Here’s What It Means

In the final scenes of Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, James Gunn delivers an Easter egg that’s one of the most on-the-nose visual callbacks you’ll see in any of his films. And it has something to say about not just the moment it takes place in, but some of the themes of the movies themselves and maybe even a fan theory. At the moment where Adam Warlock saves Quill, they are posed exactly how Michelangelo posed God and Adam on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. And there’s a few things that it could mean — but one thing that’s worth noting might change the way you look at Peter Quill.

“The Creation of Adam,” the panting from the Sistine Chapel, is a stylized depiction of the moment God breathed life into Adam, who in Judeo-Christian religion was the first human being. So, when you see Peter’s and Adam’s fingertips just millimeters apart, it feels like it has some real meaning.

First, the obvious take: Given how Adam has acted throughout the movie, it’s easy to say that this was the moment of a comic book-accurate Adam’s “creation” — where he transforms from someone who is emotionally stunted into a hero, and then decides to carry the latter forward in the movie’s final moments as a member of the reconstituted Guardians of the Galaxy. 

The somewhat more conspiratorial take: for years now, fans have been speculating that Peter Quill’s DNA may have been used in the creation of Adam Warlock. When Ayesha expressed an interest in Peter’s DNA at the start of Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, it’s easy to see it as a simple joke: she’s attracted to him and flirting. Or you can view it as a teaser, knowing in the back of our heads that Ego was going to turn out to be both Peter’s father, and a key player in the plot.

If this theory is true, it would be a reversal of the creator/creation positioning in the painting…but then, “Adam” is already in the opposite spot due to how the plot was playing out.

In Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 our beloved band of misfits are settling into life on Knowhere. But it isn’t long before their lives are upended by the echoes of Rocket’s turbulent past,” the synopsis reads. “Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him on a dangerous mission to save Rocket’s life-a mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 is in theaters now. The movie is set for a digital release on Friday.