Earlier this summer, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 upped the game for Marvel post-credits scenes with five additional moments that pushed the narrative forward. And while director James Gunn kept his promise to ensure that his sequel wasn’t simply a teaser for Avengers Infinity War, it definitely set the stage for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But according to Gunn, he had to fight to keep in one of the additional scenes.

There are spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. And if you haven’t yet, then what are you waiting for?

The scene in question was the one where Ayesha, the high priestess of the Sovereign, revealed her ultimate weapon to get revenge on the Guardians: a biologically engineered humanoid whom she called “Adam.” That was clearly a reference to Adam Warlock, one of Marvel’s most prominent cosmic heroes and a key player in the Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity War, and Infinity Crusade storylines from the comic book universe.

“I had to fight for Adam in the post-credits sequence,” explained Gunn during an interview with CinemaBlend. “Because I really thought that’s where that should go. And I thought one of the main reasons to have the Sovereign in the movie was to give audiences the hint that Adam Warlock is coming. That was one of the reasons for them to exist. And I wrote that post-credits sequence in the first draft of the script.”

Gunn went on to explain that the resistance to that teaser scene was largely about the expectation that Adam Warlock would go on to appear in Avengers: Infinity War and its currently untitled sequel. While that would have been a reasonable assumption, Gunn apparently promised Marvel that he would go out of his way to make sure that no one expects Warlock to appear in those movies. “One of the things I promised — which I do all of the time on Twitter — is letting everyone know that Adam Warlock is not going to be in Avengers 3 or Avengers 4,” said Gunn. “It’s just not going to happen. Because I didn’t want people to have false expectations of what they thought was going to happen with Adam.”

To a certain extent, that is understandable. Adam Warlock is such an important player that if he were to be used effectively in Infinity War, the audience would have to know who he was ahead of time. If there was ever a time to get Adam Warlock ready for that major role, it would have been the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Gunn has previously stated that Warlock almost appeared in an earlier version of the sequel, but he ultimately decided against it.

Fortunately, Warlock appears poised to play a big part of the next Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, which should be out as one of Marvel’s first post-Avengers 4 films.

Should Gunn have included Adam Warlock in the final cut of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? Let us know in the comment section below!

Images: Marvel Studios/Marvel