Guardians of the Galaxy Theory Completely Changes A Powerful MCU Villain 7 Years After His Debut

Ego the Living Planet proves to be an incredibly challenging foe for the galaxy’s lovable misfits in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and an interesting theory attempts to reconcile the villain’s claimed backstory and some inconsistencies with the wider MCU. While the Guardians have faced several powerful foes in their Marvel movie trilogy, Ego is able to challenge the group both physically and emotionally as he attempts to manipulate his son, Peter Quill, into helping him expand throughout the galaxy. He claims to be a Celestial, making Quill half-Celestial as well, but that backstory has always seemed a bit odd.

Celestials have made appearances in several MCU projects, most notably Eternals, and all of them except Ego look relatively similar. Each one is a towering humanoid made of a sort of organic rock-looking substance, and each has a similar blank head that looks more like a helmet than a face. Ego fits none of these descriptions outside of his potential size, leading some to think he’s not really a Celestial at all. However, one theory inspired by an MCU Phase 4 film could explain the difference between Ego and the other Celestials.

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Ego May Be A Celestial Who Never Emerged From His Planet

The first and most obvious explanation for why Ego looks so different than every other Celestial is that he’s either lying or is unintentionally mistaken about who he is. In the MCU, all claims of Ego being a Celestial either come from Ego himself or others who heard it from him for quite some time. However, in the recently released What If…? season 2, the Watcher also confirms that Ego is a Celestial. Given that the Watcher is a being with incredible knowledge of the Marvel multiverse, it seems unlikely that he’d be wrong. That being the case, their must be another reason why Ego is so different from his peers.

One compelling theory uses the end of Eternals as inspiration for why Ego is a living planet instead of a massive humanoid. The divisive MCU Phase 4 film establishes that Celestials are “planted” in the core of planets and born by breaking through the crust when there’s enough sentient life for them to consume and emerge. It’s an interesting coincidence, then, that Ego’s brain is at the core of his planet. It may be a bit outlandish, but it seems perfectly possible that Ego never actually emerged from his planet and instead was fully born in the core, slowly engulfing the planet instead of simply destroying it.

Will Ego’s Backstory Ever Be Fully Explained?

Given that it’s been 7 years since the Guardians defeated ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it seems quite unlikely that the MCU will revisit his confusing origin. Moreover, outside pure curiosity, why Ego looks the way he looks simply doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of the MCU. That being said, What If…? only recently offered unexpected confirmation of Ego’s backstory, so it’s hard to completely rule out more future insight.