WARNING: Potential spoilers for Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2."
"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" might still be more than a year from arrival, but that won't stop us from pouring over every single rumor and report to unearth any important information. And this definitely qualifies as important.
Fans have long been wondering who the villain of the long-awaited sequel will be. Is Thanos returning? Will Star-Lord's dad be the bad guy? Will it be another Marvel Cinematic Universe character we've already met? As it turns out, Marvel might be turning to one of their oddest characters to fill the role.
"Sources close to both Geek.com and production on the film have told us that a fan favorite from the comic books will be making an appearance in the upcoming film: Ego, the Living Planet, is set to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy 2," Geek.com reported.
It's OK if you don't know who Ego is. The character is a bit...out there, after all. In the most recent Marvel Comics continuity, Ego was just a normal planet chilling in space before the cosmic sorcerer The Stranger gave it consciousness. After that, Ego stared conquering other planets because...we guess that's just what you do as a sentient celestial body?
Since then, Ego has had an on-again, off-again alliance with Thor, with the planet alternating between bad guy and good guy. Why not put Ego in the upcoming "Thor: Ragnarok" then? Excellent question. While "Ragnarok" will deal with more cosmic issues, the core of the story will still revolve around Asgard. Including a whole new planet into the mix could complicate matters.
But the "Guardians" galaxy is just wacky enough to seamlessly incorporate a talking, surface-changing planet as a bad guy. We already have talking raccoons and sentient trees, you know? Ego has even had comic book dealings with Rocket Raccoon, Thanos and (indirectly) The Collector in the past, giving him some ties to the MCU's version of the "Guardians."
Writer/director James Gunn is unlikely to confirm any of this speculation in the near future, so fans will have to take these unconfirmed reports with a grain of space salt.
"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" will hit theaters on May 5, 2017.
