Gamora could be the main villain in James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Zoe Saldana's Gamora was tragically killed in Avengers: Infinity War, sacrificed by her adopted father Thanos in order to acquire the Soul Stone. But these are comic book movies, and as a result, it didn't take Marvel long to bring Gamora back into play - after a fashion. In Avengers: Endgame, the Gamora of 2014 was brought to the MCU's present-day.

The Russo brothers, directors of both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, have stressed that it's possible this version of Gamora didn't survive the snap. The film ended with Tony Stark stealing the Infinity Stones from Thanos and using his nanotech to form a new Infinity Gauntlet. Bearing the power of the Infinity Gauntlet, Stark snapped his fingers - and Thanos and all his forces crumbled to dust. It was unclear what exactly Stark had done, though; had he just erased all forces who were loyal to Thanos? Or had he destroyed everything and everyone that had come from 2014?

Related: All the Ways Avengers: Endgame Sets Up Guardians of the Galaxy 3

Zoe Saldana seems pretty confident that 2014 Gamora survived, and frankly she's keen to turn her into the villain of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. "There's a part of me that wants her to go back, find her way back to the Guardians," she observed. "But there's also a part of me that wants to explore a bad Gamora. I've never seen that and she's, you know, she's considered the most lethal assassin, the most lethal woman in the galaxy, so I would want to see what that wrath looks like also because it would just give me layers to sort of work on."

Gamora Guardians of the Galaxy

Saldana has a point; the MCU has never really explored the darker side of Gamora. While Gamora is typically treated as a hero in the comics, her morals are dubious to say the least, and in fact she's famous as the galaxy's foremost assassin. There have indeed been many occasions where she's gone rogue, and been treated as an antagonist rather than as an ally. The most prominent example was last year's "Infinity Wars" event, in which Gamora killed Thanos himself, stole the Infinity Stones for herself, and literally created a brand new reality called Warpworld.

This rebooted Gamora is perfectly suited to be the villain in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Although she sided with the Avengers against Thanos, the truth is that she hasn't spent the last four years working with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and she's gone off on her own. It's reasonable to assume Gamora will choose to use her skills as an assassin and warrior to make a living - and she might not take kindly to finding Peter Quill on her trail.

Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 set up the creation of Adam Warlock, one of Marvel's most powerful cosmic beings. In the MCU, Warlock is one of the Sovereign, created by the High Priestess Ayesha as a weapon to use against the Guardians. Gamora could potentially team up with the Sovereign and Adam Warlock; that would be perfectly fitting, given that in the comics Gamora and Warlock have worked together on many occasions, and were even lovers for a time. That would certainly make for a fearsome combination; one of the most powerful beings in the cosmos, allied with a skilled assassin who the Guardians just don't have the heart to fight.

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