James Gunn’s days at the helm of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies may now be behind him, but the fans continue to pore over his work in the hopes of finding any final Easter eggs. In particular, the director got the forums speculating when he mentioned back in 2017 that the answer to the question “Who created Rocket?” can be found somewhere in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and going by one post on Reddit, the secret may have finally been unearthed.
User Saurocron has shared a theory that’s long, insanely complex, and makes a surprising amount of sense. Though it’s practically impossible to summarize the post concisely (you can read the whole thing here), Saurocron’s line of reasoning primarily concerns the coordinates shown beneath location names in the 2017 film. Having demonstrated that these coordinates contain hidden references to the Guardians’ quirky corner of the MCU, the post goes on to suggest that the evidence may point to the content of Annihilation: Conquest #1, and in particular, the character of Herbert Wyndham, aka the High Evolutionary.
Indeed, this figure’s known to perform genetic experiments on animals, as well as producing the artificial race known as the New Men, making the creation of a talking Raccoon pretty on-brand for the guy.
Regardless, with Gunn remaining very quiet on social media these days in the wake of his dismissal from Disney, it could be some time before we get any confirmation on the theory. That being said, with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 reportedly using the filmmaker’s script, perhaps the series can still delve a little more explicitly into Gunn’s ideas for the character’s origins. Either way, we’ll be seeing Rocket once more when Avengers: Endgame comes out on April 26th, 2019.