In the heavily scrutinized world of the MCU, a joke can never just be a joke, so long as there’s the potential for subtext and hidden significance for fans to unpack. Just take this recent theory, which suggests that a typically dopey moment from Peter Quill in Avengers: Infinity War could actually be a sign of smart, strategic thinking.
The moment comes when Star-Lord and his peers first cross paths with Iron Man’s team, leading to a temporary misunderstanding about which side everyone’s on. It’s a conflict that’s quickly resolved when Chris Pratt’s character mentions Jesus. From this reference, Tony Stark puts it together that Peter’s from Earth, prompting the Guardians of the Galaxy lead to quickly correct him: “I’m not from Earth, I’m from Missouri.” And since we know full well that Star-Lord knows what planet he’s from, some fans have suggested that this silly response was an attempt to test Tony and his fellow travelers in order to ensure that they too were actually from Earth.
While Quill can often be a smarter character than meets the eye, this sounds like a stretch to explain a line that doesn’t really need explaining. In the heat of confrontation, Peter is certainly the kind to ad-lib dumb retorts, and while you could argue that it’s not entirely ‘realistic’ for the character to make this mistake, surely we can allow a little suspension of disbelief for the sake of a quirky one-liner.
Of course, if you ask most fans, Star-Lord made a much bigger mistake in Avengers: Infinity War than forgetting what planet he comes from, and the error ultimately cost him his life. Nonetheless, it’s highly likely that you’ll be seeing him once more when Avengers 4 hits theaters on May 3rd, 2019, and while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 sounds to be a long way from release, the chances are still looking pretty good that Disney isn’t done telling Peter Quill’s story quite yet.
