‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s coolest character had a sneaky MCU debut ten years ago and we didn’t notice

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is both the MCU’s saver and its bane — it more than saved its drowning reputation but also cemented the seed of the fear that with James Gunn no longer helming future Guardians movies, this mini-franchise that has been contributing big chunks to Marvel’s success, is also doomed. But that’s an ongoing debate — what we are here for is to remind you that your new favorite MCU character, courtesy of Vol. 3, already marked its presence 10 long years ago. 

We all remember Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, right? And how the team came together after being apprehended by Nova Corps and joined forces to stop Ronan? So, do you also remember the digital profiles of Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket, and Groot that flashed next to them as the corpsman Rhomann Dey (John C. Reilly) listed out their past?

But of course, many of us were purely focused on the characters, trying to catch obvious Easter eggs and recognize star cameos. No one was really paying attention (or if they did, it has been forgotten in the years since) when Rocket’s — who is officially Rocket Raccoon now, thank you so much — profile mentioned his prime associates, Groot and…Lylla.

Yep, the adorable anthropomorphic otter who was a test subject like Rocket and his love interest and whom we met (and also lost) in Vol. 3. 

At that point in time, Lylla was already dead. Either James Gunn hadn’t finalized what he planned for the character back in 2014 and just added the name to Rocket’s profile as a neat comic book reference or even then he plotted to run a sword through our hearts for the second time after we remembered why even those who haven’t read the comics seemed to know there was Lylla in Rocket’s life.