There’s a ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Easter Egg No One Has Found Yet
Easter already passed a month ago, but that short span of time is nothing compared to the six years that James Gunn has been waiting for Marvel fans to find an Easter egg in the first Guardians of the Galaxy.
Like the brightly-colored staples of the holiday, movie Easter eggs are hidden little bits of fun for the enterprising fans, and the Internet is filled with nothing if not enterprising Marvel fans.
With the Guardians movies being among Marvel’s zaniest, it’s fitting that the hidden easter egg is in that franchise.
‘Guardians’ sequel gets happy with Easter eggs
Marvel hardly invented the post-credits scene, but they definitely made it their own with their series of end credit gags. At most movies, audiences bolt when the credits start to roll. Marvel has trained audiences to stick around for bonus scenes. The first one, after the main credits, typically teases the next movie in some way. The second one, at the very, very end of the movie is often a silly throwaway. Think shawarma in The Avengers or the cat in Captain Marvel.
Both Guardians of the Galaxy movies are filled with that kind of silly throwaway humor. What else would one expect from a movie with a talking raccoon and a talking tree? The end credits of the first Guardians were fairly standard.
In the first credits scene, Baby Groot dances to “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5 as Drax sharpens his knives. In the second, Taneleer Tivan sits in the ruins of his museum as Cosmo licks his face, and Howard the Duck exclaims “gross.”
Those were nothing compared to the credit gags at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. That movie must have set some kind of record for end credits scenes, with no less than five, with these being of the silly variety. This was where they stuck a Stan Lee cameo.
What is the missing Easter egg?
To be clear, nobody outside of Marvel knows what this missing Easter egg is for sure, but if anybody can find it, it’s New Rockstars. That YouTube channel is famous for its lengthy breakdowns of trailers, with its team examining every frame and pixel with a fine tooth comb.
Their examination of the 53-second Stranger Things season 4 teaser lasted eight minutes. The glimpse of the Loki series Marvel gave us in the Super Bowl preview was less than a minute, but New Rockstars turned that into 9 minutes. They’re nothing if not thorough.
The video mentions that other YouTubers have been devoted to uncovering this mystery egg, which supposedly has something to do with Peter’s mother Meredith, who had cancer and represented a giant hole in Star-Lords life. The egg hunters focus on coordinates shown in the first Guardians.
This leads to the messages “This is mom’s cancer” and “this isn’t real.” Gunn has told these folks they’re anywhere from 50 to 70 percent correct. So close, but no Howard the Duck cigar.
What are other ‘Guardians’ Easter eggs?
Marvel movies are a veritable bounty of Easter Eggs – so much so there is a Ranker list specifically devoted to them. Guardians eggs include the following:
“Starhawk and his team of old school Ravagers featured in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are actually the original team of Guardians from the comic books, albeit with a significantly different backstory.”
“Adam Warlock’s cocoon appears in The Collector’s chamber along with a Chitauri (enemy aliens in The Avengers) and a Dark Elf (enemy from Thor: The Dark World).”
“Adam Warlock was referenced in the original Guardians of the Galaxy, but his birth and trademark “cocoon” were more prominently featured in a post-credits scene from Vol. 2.”
Probably none of these are the mystery egg already discussed. With any luck, we’ll find out after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 eventually comes out. Knowing Gunn, he’ll probably include a mystery egg in there too.
