Spoilers! What those 'Guardians of the Galaxy 3' end-credit scenes mean for Marvel future

Brian Truitt, USA TODAY

May 9, 2023 at 12:29 AM·5 min read

Spoiler alert! This story discusses key plot points and the ending of Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," so beware if you haven’t seen it.

For his grand “Guardians of the Galaxy” finale, director James Gunn stuck the landing, gave Marvel fans a happy ending and laid groundwork for where some of his cosmic misfits will end up next.

The good guys saved the day in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (in theaters now), though things are changing in that corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Gunn heads off to run the DC superhero landscape. Here’s how the final act and end-credit scenes of “Vol. 3” could affect the Marvel movie future.

Do any of the heroes die in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’?

Mantis (Pom Klementieff, from left), Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax (Dave Bautista) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) are in a mission to save a teammate in the Marvel threequel "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

Kind of! As the movie begins, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is wounded in an attack, and his teammates led by Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), search for a way to cure him. They succeed but also tussle with (and ultimately defeat) the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), who experimented on the furry guy when he was a young raccoon. The Guardians rescue kids and animals the villain used as subjects, but in doing so, Peter ends up sacrificing himself to save everyone. Groot tries to extend his branches to save him as Peter’s caught in space, but the coldness breaks them, and Star-Lord’s face bloats and freezes as he seemingly dies. (Side note: Peter must have misplaced the cool headwear he had in the first film that allowed him to breathe in space.)

But superpowered former foe Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), another of the High Evolutionary’s creations who ends up switching to the heroes' side, flies out and brings Peter back, saving him.

What happens at the end of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’?

In addition to finding out he's actually a raccoon, Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) takes on leadership of the team at the end of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

After winning the day – and over the strains of Florence + the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over” – the Guardians celebrate, but it’s bittersweet as many go their own way. Peter, who hasn’t been back to Earth since he was abducted as a child, decides to go home and give his grandpa (Gregg Henry) a hug. Before he leaves, Peter officially gives captainship of the Guardians to Rocket.

Gamora returns to her space outlaw gang, the Ravagers, who embrace their leader with open arms. Drax (Dave Bautista) retires to play dad for the many youngsters now living on Knowhere, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) heads off into the sunset – solo for the first time in her life – with some monstrous creatures she befriends, and Nebula (Karen Gillan) is left in charge of keeping Knowhere straight.

So who are the Guardians of the Galaxy introduced in the end-credit scenes?

After debuting in the "Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," Cosmo the spacedog (voiced by Maria Bakalova) is a core memeber of the team in an end-credit scene in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

The first end-credit scene introduces the new crew: OG members Rocket and Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) together with Warlock, Kraglin (Sean Gunn), telekinetic spacedog Cosmo (voiced by Maria Bakalova) and white-haired Phyla (Kai Zen), one of the kids they saved from the High Evolutionary. They’re shown on a mission to a desert planet, waiting patiently to take care of dangerous stampeding fox-y alien creatures terrorizing the locals. Rocket asks about their favorite musical acts. “I gotta go with the man, Garth Brooks,” Kraglin says and Cosmo counters, “The Carpenters do not have a single bad song.” Adam is a big Adrian Belew nerd apparently (“Both solo and his work with King Crimson") before Rocket picks a tune on the Zune music player Peter gave him.

“This one’s kind of special,” Rocket says, playing Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” – the song Peter danced to in the opening scene of 2014’s original “Guardians of the Galaxy" – before springing into action..

Even after Gunn's departure, “I think you’ll see the Guardians as a different team” in the Marvel universe going forward, the director says. “Yes, you will.” It’s quite possible they'll appear in the one of the upcoming movies, be it the next “Avengers” in 2025 and 2026 or this fall’s “The Marvels” (Nov. 10). (In the comic books, Phyla is a character associated with the Captain Marvel side of things.)

Have we seen the end of the Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord?

The second end-credit scene is a relatively quiet one, catching up with Peter having breakfast cereal, his grandpa reading the paper (“Alien abduction” reads one headline, a reference to Kevin Bacon’s appearance in “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special”), and the two discussing Peter getting roped into mowing a neighbor’s lawn.

More important are the stylish words that come when the screen goes white: “The legendary Star-Lord will return.” While Gunn is off in another comic universe, it appears that Pratt’s run in the MCU isn’t done. He could return in one of the above movies with the other Guardians or by himself, or perhaps this means a solo movie or Disney+ series is possible. (If he stays on Earth, fingers crossed for a Quill/Bacon adventure.)