| “ | I am the Warlock, mum, and I am done with being ordered around! | „ |
| ~ Adam Warlock to Ayesha. |
| “ | Why did you save me? I hurt you. | „ |
| ~ Adam Warlock being saved by Groot. |
Adam Warlock is the secondary antagonist of the 2023 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
He is a bio-engineered Sovereign created by Ayesha to destroy the Guardians of the Galaxy for wronging her back in late 2014. To do so, Warlock joins forces with the High Evolutionary, the creator of his own species, who also has an agenda of his own against the Guardians.
He is portrayed by Will Poulter, who also played Gally in The Maze Runner film series and David Senak in Detroit.
Personality[]
Despite looking like a young adult man, Adam Warlock is in fact a bio-engineered alien life form perfected by the Sovereign that is currently in his plain infancy. As such, he has a tendency to display a rather childish behavior such as describing things just as they happen to him, as well as misinterpreting commands, such as when he executes a Ravager when his mother Ayesha asks him to threaten him.
This lack of experience has also caused him to be quite naïve as he lacks understanding on concepts such as mercy thanks to still building his moral concept. While rather dense, Adam has shown to be quite caring to those important to him, being protective of his creator and mother Ayesha, as well as taking in the alien Blurp as his pet after accidentally killing his owner. By the time Rocket establishes the new Guardians of the Galaxy, Adam is much more mature and, having learnt the difference between right and wrong, is a headstrong and capable superhero.
Biography[]
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2[]
In one of the film's mid-credits scene, Warlock is engineered by the Sovereign leader Ayesha to hunt down and kill the Guardians of the Galaxy for disgracing his creator when Rocket Racoon stole their batteries at the beginning of the film, unaware that the Guardians had just saved everyone from being killed by Ego. While showing his cocoon to her chambermaid, Ayesha declares that she will name him Adam, foreshadowing the events of the third film.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3[]
Adam was intentionally taken out of his birth pod early by the High Evolutionary, who sought to capture Rocket Raccoon alive. He flies to Knowhere, where he battles the Guardians, resulting in him receiving substantial stab wound by Nebula and critically injuring Rocket. Adam later confronts the High Evolutionary for demeaning him as weak, but is quickly subdued by his powers. He is nearly killed, but stopped when Ayesha submits to the Evolutionary. Arriving on the Orgoscope, Adam attempts to interrogate a captured Ravenger, but accidentally kills him with an energy beam. However, Ayesha and Adam soon discover the Guardians are heading to Counter-Earth via a radio transmission. The pair, along with the Ravenger's pet, Blurp, travel to Counter-Earth to confront the Guardians.
Adam attacks the ship at the same time War Pig is attacking Gamora to get Rocket. He kills War Pig to prevent her from killing Rocket, but he suddenly senses his mother in danger as Counter-Earth begins to self-destruct. Adam tries to fly to the ship as fast as he could, but it explodes, killing Ayesha. Adam faces off with the Guardians one last time as he attempts to destroy Gamora and Star Lord’s ship as they attack the High Evolutionary’s ship. The ship crashes into Adam and self-destructs, severely injuring him. Later on, Adam would be saved by the Guardians and would ultimately redeem himself by rescuing Star Lord from suffocating in space. He subsequently then joined the new Guardians of the Galaxy led by Rocket.
Trivia[]
- As one of the favorite characters of Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, Adam Warlock was initially intended to appear in a more substantial role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. However, Gunn ultimately felt that the was film "overstuffed" and chose to drop Warlock from the plot to keep Mantis and use Warlock later on.
- In both Thor: The Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy, a cocoon inspired by that of Adam Warlock in the comics is seen among the Collector's collection. However, just like the Infinity Gauntlet's cameo in Thor, it's likely that this cocoon was just a reference inserted prior to Marvel Studios deciding to use Warlock in further films, as the Collector had the cocoon at least since 2013 whereas Warlock was created in 2014.
- Regé-Jean Page and George MacKay were considered for the role of Adam Warlock before Will Poulter's casting. Gunn cited Poulter's youth as one of the key reasons for choosing him to play Warlock so Marvel Studios can use him for further projects in which they wish to include Warlock.
- Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and James Gunn have confirmed that Warlock will play a pivotal role in the "cosmic side" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's future.
- It's currently unknown where Adam Warlock was or if he was one of the victims of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, as during the interim between that film and Avengers: Endgame, Rocket Racoon wasn't shown to have been targeted.
- One possible explanation is that Ayesha simply hadn't told the High Evolutionary about Rocket's existence until the events of the third movie.
- Another explanation is that the High Evolutionary didn't want to engage Rocket while he was with the Avengers.
- The scene in which Adam Warlock saves Star-Lord from fatally freezing in the vacuum of outer space is reminiscent of the poses of God and Adam in Michelangelo's well-known fresco The Creation of Adam, which is ironic, considering how both scenes have a character named Adam extending his hand (however this would follow a long-running tradition in Adam Warlock's comics of having the character comparable to religious figures or events).
- Adam Warlock's introduction scene of him dashing through space to the sound of "Crazy on You" by Heart has spawned various Internet memes, such as edits of scenes of characters from other media flying forward in a similar fashion captioned "Bro thinks he's Adam Warlock".
- Nia DaCosta originally pitched to include Adam Warlock in the story of The Marvels, likely due to his status as a cosmic hero, but was told that Warlock would be already appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, leading her to drop him from the story.
External Links[]
- Adam Warlock on the Heroes Wiki
