Guardians of the Galaxy 3 theory changes 1 MCU villain in a mind-blowing way
Are two of the MCU’s most powerful villains actually the same entity?
What if Ego the Living Planet didn’t die at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? The celestial Marvel villain (played by Kurt Russell) made his MCU debut in the second Guardians film and pretty quickly proved to be just as powerful and narcissistic as his moniker implied. Like many Marvel villains, the character sought to take over the entire galaxy and came terrifyingly close to doing just that before he was ultimately killed by Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his friends.
A wild new Marvel theory speculates that Ego didn’t actually die during the climax of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 though, but instead went somewhere else and transformed into an entirely different being.
The Theory — A new Reddit post from u/Bobby_Go suggests that not only could Ego the Living Planet have survived his “destruction” at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but he could have even traveled into the Dark Dimension and transformed into the being known as Dormammu. The Redditor argues that Ego and Dormammu have several notable similarities, including the shared desire to spread their presence and control everything in the universe.
Visually, Ego is comprised of “chunks of mass bridged together by intricate strands,” while Dormammu’s Dark Dimension “seems to be entirely composed of vividly colorful chunks of mass bridged together by intricate strands.” Both villains can also manipulate the matter and energy around them and share their energy with those they choose (Ego shared his power with Star-Lord and The Ancient One drew on Dormammu’s).
So, with all that in mind, is it possible that Ego the Living Planet and Dormammu could be the same being?
“Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.”
A Place Beyond Time — Ego the Living Planet is one of the most powerful villains that’s been introduced in the MCU up to this point, so it would be within his power to enter another dimension and rule over it. In fact, Ego is one of the only Marvel villains who could conceivably do just that.
As the theorist notes in their original Reddit post, since the Dark Dimension exists outside of time, it wouldn’t really matter when the dimension itself was created or when Ego entered it either. In other words, even if Ego entered the Dark Dimension at the exact time he was about to be destroyed in 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the Dark Dimension’s timeless structure could explain why Dormammu existed during the Doctor Strange film that was released in 2016.
Dormammu being a transformed version of Ego would also explain why the ruler of the Dark Dimension is — as it’s stated in Doctor Strange — so fixated on specifically taking over Earth. It’d mean Ego is still hellbent on taking over the planet that got away.
Ego.
The Inverse Analysis — This is a truly wild, inventive fan theory. It’s also one that could open the door for Kurt Russell to return in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, or another future MCU film, and that instantly makes it a fan theory worth rooting for in our eyes.
As for whether it’s at all likely or possible that Marvel will reveal Dormammu has been Ego the whole time... well… crazier things have happened. Remember when Valkyrie attacked Thanos’ forces on the back of a pegasus? In the MCU, anything goes.
