Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ended on an emotional note. All our heroes survived, but they also agreed to go their separate ways, passing down the leadership torch to Rocket Raccoon, who is now in charge of a new team of Guardians. As emotional as this was, it was revealed that there was another ending in mind for the film.
High Evolutionary actor, Chukwudi Iwuji revealed to interviewers on ComicBook.com that Vol. 3 had an alternate ending. The actor gave a somewhat vague description of the alternate events that unfolded during the final confrontation and hinted that his character could have lived. After all, we don’t see him explicitly get killed in the film, and could have somehow escaped off-camera.
“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. 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.”
Interestingly, this alternate ending could fill a somewhat similar gap left at the end of Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which also left us hanging in regards to the fate of Scarlet Witch who is presumed dead when she sacrifices herself. Of course, there is a chance she survived, since it wasn’t explicitly shown that she was killed off.
In the film, The High Evolutionary was defeated after Rocket Raccoon and the rest of the guardians had one brief final fight with Vol. 3‘s big bad. Rocket was given the chance to deliver the final blow, but refuses and decides to spare him. However, the bad guy still dies when his ship exploded. So perhaps this alternate ending discloses whether or not the High Evolutionary escaped before the explosion.
Unlike the film’s big bad, a lot of his creations that were onboard his ship found refuge in Knowhere thanks to the work of The Guardians, to the point where even Adam Warlock received a second chance and became a guardian himself. Meanwhile, Peter Quill returns to Earth to find his remaining family.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the final installment in the Guardians of the Galaxy film franchise and is now showing in theaters.
