The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 trailer hints at Rocket Raccoon's happy ending. James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be the end of the story for this incarnation of the team, and the writer-director has promised there will be at least one death. The first trailer hints that Rocket Raccoon will be the one to die, most notably with a beautiful monologue in which he expresses a desire to fly into the stars with his found-family one last time. But it's important to always remember Marvel trailers conceal as much as they reveal, meaning this trailer could well be deliberately cut to mislead. In fact, one detail in the trailer hints at a very different outcome for Rocket - a much happier one.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 sees the team return to Rocket's homeworld, and one shot shows him reunited with an otter who has a cyborg arm. This is Lylla, Rocket's soulmate in the comics, and the line about flying away into the stars is evocative of a classic issue. In the first Rocket Raccoon miniseries, published back in 1985, Rocket and Lylla did indeed wind up flying off into the stars - a group of escapees from their strange version of Earth known as Halfworld. They gained their Happily Ever After, and the same could well happen in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

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Who Is Lylla, The New Character In Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3?

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Like Rocket, Lylla the otter is a genetically modified sentient animal. She made her debut in The Incredible Hulk #271 alongside Rocket himself, in a story in which Rocket competed with a rival for her affections. The Happily Ever After shared between Rocket and Lylla didn't last, sadly, with the two parting ways sometime before Rocket joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. She eventually married Blackjack O'Hare (a character who's a riff on Bucky O'Hare), and Rocket gave their marriage his reluctant blessing. But the MCU could take things in a very different direction, with Rocket and Lylla bowing out in a story in which they get to be together at last.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 trailer may hint why Rocket is obsessed with cyborg arms - like Bucky's, which he was given in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Lylla has a cybernetic arm too, so it's possible cyborg body-parts simply have an odd sentimental attention for the anthropomorphized raccoon. That's a major difference between the MCU and the comics, where Lylla the otter isn't a cyborg at all.

Who Will Really Die In Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3?

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There's intense speculation about just which character(s) will die in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The prospect of seeing any of these heroes die is a heartbreaking one, because the Guardians are a mismatched found-family rather than a traditional superhero team, and viewers have come to care so much about them. But the very fact the trailer goes to such lengths to set up Rocket's death is surely suspicious; it wouldn't be a surprise to see him survive, with Star-Lord and the other Guardians dying instead. There would be something so very bittersweet in a story in which Rocket loses his found-family, but regains the one he left behind. No doubt Marvel will avoid revealing anyone's fate until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits cinemas next year.

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