Guardians of the Galaxy 3 Post Credit Scenes Explained

*Warning: This post continues with spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3*

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 beautifully concludes the adventures of the Guardians. Writer-director James Gunn clearly stated this third instalment will be his, as well as the Guardians’, last journey together, and the film’s ending profoundly delivers on those promises.

As Phase 5 continues to blossom into unknown exhilaration, the two Guardians of the Galaxy 3 post credit scenes show that there’s much left to explore with the members of the team and towards the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The first post-credit scene features Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Groot/Alpha Groot (Vin Diesel), Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), Cosmo the Space Dog (Maria Bakalova), Kraglin (Sean Gunn), and Phyla (Kai Zen). Phyla is the young girl saved by the Guardians from the High Evolutionary’s ship, seen in the final battle of the film.

As the new Guardians of the Galaxy, led by Rocket Raccoon, they are on a desert planet wearing the traditional Guardians uniform, hilariously sharing their favourite music from various decades. For Marvel superfans, nostalgia hits when Rocket plays Redbone‘s “Come and Get Your Love,” sending us full circle to close out the trilogy to the song with which it begins. When we see the new Guardians walk towards the desert town, showcasing their individual abilities, Phyla’s powers specifically cannot go unnoticed.

In Marvel Comics, Phyla is known as Phyla-Vell. In short, she’s a superhero known to have cosmic abilities parallel to Captain Marvel. She goes by many aliases, including Quasar, Martyr, and even Captain Marvel. In the first Guardians of the Galaxy 3 post credit scenes, her character blasts cosmic energy beams similar to those of Captain Marvel and her right eye glows purple, like Monica Rambeau’s changing eye colours seen in WandaVision.

There are a ton of ways Phyla’s inclusion in the MCU could play out. In Volume 3, she is still a young character (hello Young Avengers?), but she doesn’t seem to be just another one of the High Evolutionary’s “perfect life forms.” (Sound familiar?)

Time will tell if Marvel Studios ends up planning to adapt her similar to her Marvel Comics lore. Yet, where we’ll see her next, as well as with the new Guardians, remains unclear. With The Marvels as the next film in Marvel’s Phase 5 lineup, the possibility of seeing Phyla alongside Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, Iman Vellani’s Ms. Marvel, and Teyonah Parris‘ Monica Rambeau is something to keep an eye out for.

Star-Lord is the focus of the second of the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 post credit scenes. After passing the captain torch to Rocket, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) ultimately decides to go back to his home planet Earth and reunite with his grandfather, Jason (Gregg Henry). It’s truly a touching and wholesome moment in the film, where grandson and grandfather embrace each other after all these years.

In this post-credits scene, we see a little more of the two. Peter spends quality time with his grandfather and shares a conversation over breakfast. His grandpa reads the newspaper with a headline stating “Alien Abduction: Kevin Bacon Shares All,” which is a reference to the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special where Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Drax (Dave Bautista) hilariously abduct Kevin Bacon from Earth in an effort to surprise Peter with some Christmas cheer.

However, it’s the film’s ending title card that has us intrigued for possible future stories with the Guardians. The title card reads, “The Legendary Star-Lord Will Return.” At first glance, it’s assumed that Chris Pratt will return to the MCU as Star-Lord, but could it also be someone else? Knowing Mantis is now on her own venturing the galaxy and is Peter’s half-sister, it’s likely she could take up the mantle as Peter remains on Earth. Regardless of the title card’s intentions, we’re thrilled to find out eventually.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now playing in theatres, and audiences should look to experience this brilliant Marvel film on the big screen.

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