Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's Ending and Post-Credits Scenes Explained - IGN (2024)

Guardians of the GalaxyGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

We break down where Star-Lord and the gang might be heading next.

The end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had big consequences and a whopping five post-credits scenes to set up what’s coming next. Let’s break down what it all means!Full spoilers follow for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Peter Quill finally meets his father and it turns out ol’ dad is a Celestial space god (with a little “g”) named Ego, and the big twist is that Ego needs Peter to help him take over the universe and keep him company. Peter taps into the power passed on to him from Ego to brawl with his dad while the rest of the Guardians destroy the cosmic brain at the core of Ego’s planet. In the end, the Guardians succeed, but new member and surrogate father-figure Yondu sacrifices himself to save Peter. So basically, Peter met his biological father only to find out that the only dad he needed was there all along! Yondu’s heroic death also redeems him for breaking the Ravager code all those years before.
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While we did see Yondu die, there’s actually a small chance he could return. One of the post-credits scenes sees Sylvester Stallone’s character Stakar Ogord assembling the original Ravagers. Stakar is actually the Marvel antihero known as Starhawk and a member of the original comic book Guardians of the Galaxy, who are from an alternate future in the 31st century. The other members present are Martinex (Michael Rosenbaum), Charlie-27 (Ving Rhames), Mainframe (voiced by Miley Cyrus), Krugarr (a CG character), and Aleta (Michelle Yeoh). This group, along with Yondu, all worked together in the past before Yondu’s “betrayal” of the Ravagers. Given that the Guardians comics are no strangers to time travel, it wouldn’t be a stretch for this newly assembled team to go back and save Yondu. But whether they do or not, director James Gunn told IGN that the group shot was more than just a wink at fans and he wants to see these Ravagers/Guardians go on to do their own thing in the MCU.
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While we’re talking about the Ravagers, given that we saw Sean Gunn’s Kraglin practicing with Yondu’s whistle-arrow and making a pincushion out of Drax, we’re guessing he’ll be the one to take over Yondu’s role as Ravager leader.

However, the most important of these end-credits scenes features a direct setup for one of Marvel’s most popular and storied cosmic characters, Adam Warlock. Both Ayesha and Adam have a super complicated backstory, but the gist is they are genetic twins who both went on to become powerful players in Marvel’s space stories. Adam in particular was key to defeating Thanos in the Infinity Gauntlet comic and has strong ties to both the Guardians and the Avengers. He even had an Infinity Gem affixed to his forehead in the comics. But for the MCU, Gunn told IGN that he’ll be sitting out Avengers: Infinity War and will instead be a big character in the future alongside the returning Ayesha, which we’re assuming means they’ll be a brother/sister villain duo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. And in case you were wondering, Gunn said he made a mistake by including Adam’s signature cocoon as an Easter egg in the first Guardians movie (as glimpsed inside the Collector’s museum), which is why we see a new, tech-based cocoon this time around.

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Now, this next one wasn’t a post-credits scene, but Nebula flying off to find and kill Thanos is of utmost importance. Avengers: Infinity War will see Thanos finally taking the fight to Earth’s heroes to assemble the all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet, and we already know that the Guardians will be making an appearance in that film, so Nebula will probably be the one who calls them in after she finds Thanos on Earth. If the MCU decides to follow the comics, then Nebula will play a vital role in stopping Thanos because it’s she who winds up being his undoing on the printed page.
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Speaking of Infinity War, we get a funny post-credits scene featuring Peter chastising an angsty teen Groot. While this was mostly played for laughs, it also tells us that Groot is growing like a weed and will most likely be back to his original, adult body size by the time we see him again in Infinity War.

And finally, we catch up with Stan Lee talking to the Watchers (we’d also gotten a glimpse of this earlier in the film). They are all-seeing cosmic beings who have a code to observe intelligent life throughout the universe. But while they are adept at watching, listening is another story. Not even they could bear hearing Stan’s exhaustive list of cameos.

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That’s everything Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 gave us to look forward to. Make sure to check out our review of Guardians Vol. 2, and our Guardians Easter Eggs too. And for more on the Guardians and all Marvel movies, keep it here on IGN.

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's Ending and Post-Credits Scenes Explained - IGN (2024)
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