There’s plenty of directors who are known for reusing the same actors between different projects — Quentin Tarantino, the Coen Brothers, and Tim Burton, just to name a few. And of course, James Gunn, director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and The Suicide Squad, is no exception.
Every film to date that Gunn has directed has featured Michael Rooker and Nathan Fillion in some capacity, while his brother Sean Gunn is another frequent collaborator. Now, Gunn adds another name to his list of recurring stars: Chukwudi Iwuji, who plays Peacemaker’s new boss Clemson Murn in the Peacemaker TV series on HBO Max. And as it was recently announced, Iwuji will be working with Gunn once again on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — the question is, just what Marvel character will he be portraying?
The High Evolutionary
One of the prominent theories for the identity of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s main antagonist is the High Evolutionary, a major comic villain who has close ties to Adam Warlock, who will be portrayed in the film by Will Poulter. The High Evolutionary, aka Herbert Wyndham, is a master geneticist with incredible cosmic power, whose noble intentions are undermined by a megalomaniacal god complex. The High Evolutionary has been both a dignified benefactor and an unhinged mad scientist throughout his comic history, so he definitely has the potential to serve as a compelling antagonist.
Magus
Magus is another villain who’s closely related to Adam Warlock — in fact, he’s an evil Variant of Warlock’s in the comics, hailing from a timeline where he went mad with power and created a vast cosmic empire with himself as tyrannical god-emperor. In last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy video game, Magus was featured as the final boss pulling the strings of the entire story, so he’s already the most prominent Guardians villain in pop culture who has yet to be in the movies. While Gunn is unlikely to adapt Magus’ comic backstory, Magus could easily be retooled as another Sovereign gone rogue.
Raker
Speaking of the Guardians of the Galaxy video game, while Magus was the game’s ultimate villain, Cardinal Raker is featured as the main antagonist for the bulk of the story. As the leader of the Universal Church of Truth, he seeks to bring the galaxy “salvation” by trapping everyone in an illusory dream world for all eternity. While Raker wasn’t really the main villain of the Guardians of the Galaxy game, and he’s an incredibly minor villain in the comics, he could easily be utilized as a compelling bad guy for the MCU.
Korvac
Michael Korvac is another major Guardians villain from the comics, though he was introduced as a foe of the original 31st-century Guardians team that would eventually serve as the template for the MCU Ravagers, rather than the modern Guardians led by Star-Lord. Hailing from the future of Earth-691, Korvac is an opportunistic cyborg servant of the alien Badoon who is in constant pursuit of greater power. In one memorable Avengers storyline, he even steals Galactus’ Power Cosmic and attempts to remake Earth into a utopia under his rule. Gunn already reimagined Korvac’s comic book love interest Carina as the Collector’s long-suffering assistant back in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, so it’s very possible that he could have plans for Korvac himself.
Molecule Man
While Molecule Man is more closely tied to the Fantastic Four than the Guardians, he’s still an incredibly powerful character with the right combination of humor and tragedy to flourish under James Gunn’s pen. Originally a mild-mannered lab tech, Owen Reece accidentally opened a rift in reality that granted him the power of the otherworldly Beyonders — though despite his phenomenal cosmic power, Molecule Man retained his awkward and anxious personality. Molecule Man is best known for his role in the Secret Wars storyline: both the 1984 original and its 2015 sequel. So if Marvel Studios is going to be building towards a Secret Wars adaptation as its next Infinity War, they’ll likely need to introduce Molecule Man at some point.
Eternity
Marvel characters don’t get much bigger than Eternity — he’s literally the size of the entire multiverse! Originally introduced in Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Doctor Strange comics, Eternity embodies the sum total of all life across the multiverse, similar to the Force in Star Wars. He’s a being who transcends time and space, existing everywhere and every-when at once. In fact, in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 scene where Ego unlocks Star-Lord’s full Celestial power, Quill even says “I see it… I see Eternity” while visions of the cosmos swirl in his eyes. Knowing James Gunn, that may have been a sly hint at Eternity showing up in a future Guardians film.