How Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol. 3's High Evolutionary Could Introduce One Of X-Men's Biggest Villains To The MCU

With Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe officially over with the releases of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," all eyes are turning to what's to come in Phase 5. Marvel Studios promises to enter the new era of the MCU with a bang, with "Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania" and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" releasing next year. Kevin Feige and the crew took the stage at CCXP 2022 to showcase the highly-anticipated movies, releasing the trailer for "Guardians Vol. 3" online to the public.

From the looks of it, the conclusion of the "Guardians" trilogy isn't holding back the emotions, promising to make audiences laugh and cry. Director James Gunn has stated countless times that "Vol. 3" marks the end of his version of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and fans should expect some major deaths in the finale.

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" brings back all of the space-based characters from the previous two films. Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldaña (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Vin Diesel (Groot), and Bradley Cooper (Rocket Racoon) return to save the universe, but "Vol. 3" gets really interesting with the newcomers it's bringing to the MCU. Will Poulter and Maria Bakalova join the cast as Adam Warlock and Cosmo the Spacedog, while Chukwudi Iwuji plays the villainous High Evolutionary.

The inclusion of the High Evolutionary in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" could open the door for a classic X-Men villain's introduction, too.

Marvel Studios is slowly building to the inevitable introduction of mutants and the X-Men in the MCU. Phase 4 gave fans the first hints of a possible mutation developing, and while there's no indication that "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" will continue that trend, the High Evolutionary has an interesting comic book connection to fan-favorite X-Men villain Mister Sinister. 

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the High Evolutionary, with his comic book debut coming in 1966's "Thor" #134. Before becoming the Marvel villain, he began his origins as Herbert Wyndham, a brilliant student inspired by the work of geneticist Nathaniel Essex, aka Mr. Sinister. Essex was a scientist whose obsession with evolving the human race led him to predict the arrival of the mutant X-gene. He performed numerous grotesque experiments on his victims to awaken their mutations, which inspired Wyndham to begin his own experiments. With the help of Apocalypse, Essex eventually transformed into the immortal Mister Sinister, while Wyndham experimented on himself, turning him into the High Evolutionary. 

It remains unclear what the High Evolutionary's origins will be in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." Still, if Marvel Studios decides to go the comic book route, Nathaniel Essex could be teased. It's a bit of a stretch, but anything's possible with the MCU's introductions of time travel and the multiverse.

Fox previously had plans to introduce Mister Sinister to their "X-Men" universe, with actor Jon Hamm in talks to play the villain. The studio intended him to feature in a post-credits scene for "The New Mutants," but production issues took that away from fans (via Yahoo).