Adam Warlock is finally making his debut in the MCU, but there’ll likely be one vital change to his origin — and fans are discussing how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will deal with this inconvenience.
Adam, played by Midsommar actor, Will Poulter, has been teased in the trailer for the third Guardians film. However, his origin in the comics depends upon the Soul Stone, something which no longer exists in the current timeline of the films. This presents a problem as the gem is quite a vital piece of the character’s story considering it gives him a lot of his god-like powers.
Fans on the Marvel Studios subreddit theorized about how the studio would tackle the problem Warlock’s origin presents for his character in the MCU. Most believe that his origin won’t be elaborated on or that there will be slight changes to make his character fit.
There are fears that because his origin has changed it means that the studio will have to nerf his powers. This wouldn’t be surprising as it’s something Marvel has frequently done with its characters when they make the leap from page to screen. The studio aren’t afraid to make bold changes that sometimes upset longtime fans, and this may be a necessary alteration for Warlock to fit into the narrative of the movie.
It’s pretty safe to say that the Soul Stone will have almost nothing to do with this version of Adam Warlock’s origin. However, that does beg the question of what exactly that stone in his head that we’ve seen in the trailers is. More than likely it’s just to give him his comic accurate look and we probably shouldn’t overthink it.
Aside from the Soul Stone, another major change has already been made to Adam’s backstory. The character was created by the Enclave in the comics, however we already know that it is the Sovereign from the second Guardians film that has created Adam in the MCU. Because of this, some fans believe that he was made with Peter Quill’s or Celestial DNA.
In all honesty, the character’s comics history is quite long and complicated, it would be a wise choice for Marvel Studios to trim his origins down a bit, even if that means making him less powerful than his two-dimensional counterpart. The MCU just doesn’t have the same time the comics do to fully flesh out the character. As long as the spirit of Adam Warlock is embodied in the film, which releases this May 5, we won’t be too upset.