James Gunn reveals the big bad in ‘Guardians Vol 3.’ was actually between two candidates

The time is finally upon us. Slowly but surely, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has started rolling out in theaters around the world, and MCU fans are starting to witness the sheer malice of the film’s big bad, the High Evolutionary, played by Chukwudi Iwuji. It turns out, however, we may well have ended up seeing a pretty different movie, as director James Gunn was close to picking a different big bad altogether. 

In a @TwitterMovies Q&A, Gunn responded to a fan question about why he chose the High Evolutionary to be the adversary he pit the Guardians against in the latest installment. Ultimately, seeing as Gunn wanted to tell a story that revolved around Rocket, it came down to two potential candidates – the High Evolutionary, who he eventually settled upon, or a second option – Annihilus. 

“The High Evolutionary I loved, because I’m a big fan of Island of Lost Souls, Island of Dr. Moreau, and I always wanted to tell a story like that. So that was one of the things I liked about Rocket from the beginning, was being able to tell that sort of story about him. And, because I knew it was going to center about Rocket, I knew that the person who created Rocket was either the High Evolutionary or Annihilus from Marvel Comics. And I settled on High Evolutionary, who I really dig.” 

Annihilus, for the uninitiated, is a bug-like and very self-obsessed Marvel villain, whose key motivator throughout a lot of the comics is preserving and extending his own lifespan, and leaves plenty of bodies in his wake while doing so. He is, in a sense, an antithesis of sorts to the High Evolutionary, who seeks to create a ‘perfect’ world, but goes to some pretty vile lengths to do so. 

Ultimately, we’re glad this is the direction Gunn went in for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, as Chukwudi Iwuji absolutely crushes as the film’s villain. That’s not to say we’d object to seeing Annihilus poke his nasty head through the cracks at some point down the line, of course.

You can decide for yourself whether or not Gunn made the right call with the film’s villain when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 lands in your local theater on May 5.