Since the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, everyone has been asking one big question. Who is Star-Lord’s father? That answer was revealed last week not in a movie theater, but at San Diego Comic-Con. His dad is the living planet Ego and director James Gunn told us why he revealed that info now, and why it’s so damn important.


In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ego assumes the human form in the form of Kurt Russell. He’s still a super-powerful god, however, and that’s a departure from the comics where Quill’s father is the more traditional humanoid-looking alien, J’son.

“It was going to come out sooner or later,” Gunn told io9 of why he chose Comic-Con to reveal the information. “And I think one of the things I impressed upon people early on is the identity of Quill’s father is not the big stunner in this movie. I’m not leading it all to Darth Vader being Luke’s father in the third act reveal. This is really about the relationship between [Star-Lord] and his father, who happens to be a living planet, and his other father, Yondu, who is an abusive jerk. It’s about the dysfunctional family triad that those three characters have. That’s the center of the movie.”




Having Vol. 2 be about family makes sense, considering the team just came together at the end of the first film. To some, it probably makes less sense to depart so far from the comics, but Gunn had very good reasons to do just that.

“I didn’t like that in the comics J’Son is a king, and he also reeked very much of Star Wars, so I didn’t want that same sort of thing,” Gunn said. “I like the idea of Quill’s father being an ancient, cosmic, incredibly powerful being who, just like Rocket, has problems connecting to other people because [...] there’s nothing else like him. This character has a hard time connecting to other people because he’s a god who’s been alone for billions of years.”



Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opens May 5; the first trailer will likely be released this fall.