If you’re one of the millions who’ve already seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, then you’ve seen Will Poulter’s excellent portrayal of Adam Warlock, a member of the golden race of the Sovereign. While he was teased in Vol. 2 as Sovereign Ayesha’s “son,” we got to see the much-hyped character in action this time around. Poulter recently talked about what the future might look like for the character.
Poulter appeared on the podcast Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz, and revealed just where his head is at in terms of Adam Warlock. Before we dive into that, some background on the character: Warlock was supposed to be the next step of evolution for the Sovereign, but he was broken out of his cocoon too early by the High Evolutionary to capture Rocket.
In the comics, Ayesha is Warlock’s sister as opposed to mother. Also, in the comics Warlock has the Soul Gem in his forehead. In the movie, there’s a gem in his head but it’s not explained. The soul gem was of course destroyed in Endgame, where Vision wore it in his forehead in the MCU.
“What do you want to do with Adam Warlock in the future?” Horowitz asked. Poulter said he had a lot of thoughts about it.
“If I had my way and I could handle more than one human being schedule – and I can barely do that – listen, I feel so lucky to have experienced what I’ve experienced. I would of course love to continue the evolution of Adam and really kind of explore that self-development journey further. You know, continue his kind of maturation arc … and see where he goes.”
Poulter shared that he’s ready to “honestly” explore the arc to wherever it ends up taking the character. As for specifics, like which movies he might end up in and where he might crossover with other characters, Poulter answered, “I really don’t know.”
He said he’s not so worried about that external stuff as much as he is excited to “explore the character’s arc fully.”
“James [Gunn] gave me a wonderful opportunity to kind of introduce him, and I think by the end of the movie I felt like I was in an exciting position where I could potentially take him forward, having made a decision about what his moral compass is and what his value system is.”
That value system, Poulter said, evolves over the course of the movie and he said it’s that kind of character arc that really lets him enjoy portraying the character. Poulter and Horowitz cover a multitude of other topics during the pod, including how he felt about working with Michael Keaton, and what it was like filming The Revenant. Check out the full interview below.