Who is High Evolutionary in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? As much as we love heroes, everyone knows the villain of any story is usually far more intriguing.
That’s often the case with the MCU, and now the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 release date is here, we can confirm the latest Marvel villain is one of the most fascinating of them all. We had high praise for High Evolutionary in our Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 review, but now it’s time to really get into the nitty gritty details on the new MCU character. After all, we think he’s the most hateable Marvel villain ever.
So, who is High Evolutionary? What are his motivations in the new movie? And how did he become the formidable being we see in the superhero movie? Warning, slight spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, coming up!
Who is High Evolutionary?
High Evolutionary is an incredibly powerful and dangerous being who plays god by experimenting on humans and animals. The crazed geneticist, played by Chukwudi Iwuji in the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, is the man responsible for creating Rocket Raccoon and we see how that happened in the new Marvel movie.
We also learn that he created the Sovereign, a superior race of golden, very intelligent being that we met in the previous Guardians MCU movie. He is a cruel and ruthless man hellbent on perfecting the evolutionary process, and has imbued himself with many impressive capabilities, namely the ability to shoot deadly energy beams from his hands.
What does High Evolutionary want?
High Evolutionary wants to create a utopian society filled with absolutely perfect being, to remove any and all flaws from humans and animals alike. He carries out wild experiments on animals in the new James Gunn movie, adding mechanical parts to them and giving them the ability to speak.
His experiments generally do not go to plan, though, with many animals dying during the enhanced evolution process. Rocket is an anomaly, who develops incredible intelligence, and High Evolutionary needs to study Rocket’s brain to see how this happened so he can replicate it in his other test subjects.
When we get to the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ending, we learn that High Evolutionary has been working on human test subjects. He intends to destroy Counter-Earth, his first manufactured society filled with anthropomorphic creatures, and start again with the New Colony. Among the list of everyone who dies in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are many of High Evolutionary’s test subjects.
Where does High Evolutionary come from?
We don’t learn much about the origins of High Evolutionary in the MCU, but we do know he has spent some time on Earth before carrying out his evil plans. He tells Peter Quill that he visited Earth once and learned about the way humans live, and felt he could improve the human race.
This suggests High Evolutionary is not from planet Earth in the MCU. In the comic books things are slightly different. High Evolutionary was originally a human man named Herbert Edgar Wyndham who became obsessed with genetics. He created a machine called the genetic accelerator and started experimenting on rats before raising the stakes and successfully anthropomorphising bigger animals.
That’s all on High Evolutionary, but you may be keen to dive into a guide on everything you need to know before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, or our prediction on how much money Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will make.
Alternatively, find out why we think Dave Bautista is the best wrestler turned actor, or dive into our list of the best movies of all time.