WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

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The heroes of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 took a big leap into Marvel's cosmic mythology with Peter's father, Ego (Kurt Russell). But the 'Living Planet' who turned out to actually be one of Marvel's Celestials may have already appeared in the previous movie, just... not in the form fans were expecting. In fact, now that we know the real plot twists surrounding Ego's origin story, his natural form, and his relationship with Peter Quill's mother, another MASSIVE Guardians of the Galaxy Easter Egg can be understood. There's far too much evidence for it to be a fluke, but seems to be a hidden message from director James Gunn spilling the beans on Meredith Quill's lover - and the cause of her death - years ago.

We can't say that this combination of Marvel's Celestial lore with fictional space coordinates, and finally Ego's ability to kill through cancer is Guardians' "Final Undiscovered Easter Egg" still yet to be found. Since the release of Vol. 2, Gunn has clarified that he'll be taking that secret message to his grave if nobody can solve it, although some have "come close." Either way, we're confident this is another MCU connection few fans have made, but if it is what it appears to be, it's one truly incredible detail courtesy of Gunn. One that fans will absolutely love, revealing the sequel's secrets before anyone knew what to look for.

Be warned, there will be SPOILERS ahead. Because the secret of Ego, Peter Quill's mother, and Guardians of the Galaxy 2's story may have been spilled in the first movie.

The Coordinate Easter Eggs We Knew

Guardians Galaxy Easter Egg Moms Cancer

For those who have yet to see Guardians 2, one last SPOILER warning... because the biggest twist of the film isn't just that Ego is evil, and out to conquer the entire universe - it's that he gave Star-Lord's mother her brain tumor. According to the Celestial Brain-turned-Planet-turned-Man, he did it because he truly loved Meredith, having visited her three times on Earth - and knowing that he might give up his conquest of the universe out of his love for her. The only way to cut the cord permanently was to put the cancer in her head that would wipe her clean from this temporary, mortal world.

But hold on. Once the shock of that bombshell faded, we placed it with one unforgettable secret message concealed within the first Guardians movie. Most fans will have heard it by now, but the space coordinates that accompany the on-screen text in the Guardians films aren't random. In some cases, they're hand-picked by Gunn as real places in the Andromeda Galaxy, while others are created out of thin air. One of the latter comes when Ronan the Accuser's ship, The Dark Aster, is reveal. It's a text and number string that looks like astronomical coordinates, but deciphered into something far more shocking.

Applying the Dark Aster coordinates to a simple system of swapping letters for their placement in the alphabet (A=1, B=2, Z=26), fans got the following:

"T8IS IS1301319+31N3518" OR "THIS IS MOMS+CANCER."

It was a cryptic statement, and one most fans took as a symbolic or thematic statement by director Gunn - that Peter fearing, then defeating Ronan matched his struggle to accept his mother's death. But with Guardians 2 making it clear that Ego the Living Planet was actually the cause of Peter's mother's cancer... we got to thinking. If those coordinates were clearly a message, but NOT one about the Dark Aster they accompanied... maybe it was part of a larger message to the audience directly?

The Coordinates Spell a Message?

Time to do some more digging, and break down every other bit of on-screen text we're given in the film - and we mean every. As mentioned above, some of the planets or locations and their coordinates correspond to real or hypothetical spots in our known universe, like Morag (M31V J00443799+4129236) and Xandar (M31V J00442326+4127082). Both are found in the Andromeda Galaxy, otherwise known as Messier 13, hence the "M31V" at the beginning. In addition, the location of the Kyln prison looks to be a joke based on this format, deciphering down to "MTH ISISN TREAL"(M20H 119919142+0185112).

But the coordinates of completely fictional, yet meaningful places or objects in the this particular story translate most easily into English terms or phrases. At the time, those studying the coordinates of Knowhere, in particular, found only a partially constructed string of letters that seemed to broadly point to Meredith Quill, Peter's mother (played by Laura Haddock). It made sense, considering that the Dark Aster's coordinates also made vague reference to her. But without knowing exactly what Gunn was getting at, it was hard to make some larger sense of it.

Until we tried to think of how there could even be an undiscovered Easter Egg at all, considering the amount of fans scrutinizing every frame. It meant they weren't examining everything, which forced us to drill down a bit deeper. We never knew why James Gunn chose the year "1988," specifically, to begin his flashback story (in fact, it sort of created a Guardians/Avengers plot hole). And we fully accept that this may be a cosmic coincidence, and the deciphered meaning of the opening text is simply a year. But combining the coordinates that point to the mystery of Meredith Quill gives... well, a clear statement:

For clarification, combining the alphabetical values associated with the numbers shown on screen, and allowing for digits that overtly resemble letters without translation (3="E"), the coordinates in sequence form a clear message from Gunn to the audience. "SHH... THIS IS MOMS CANCER... MEREDITH QUILL (E)X" clues viewers in that a secret is coming their way, that the secret is the source of Star-Lord's mother's cancer, and that the source is her "ex." An ex we now know to be Ego in human form, who confirmed that he gave her cancer.

It was at this point that we began to do some digging to see if this complete message had been found, or posed before, and couldn't find it online. The diehard fans will know that Reddit user 'MTrigs' had put some of the pieces together too, specifically the translation of Knowhere's coordinates into a reference to Meredith Quill's past lover. But that was before Guardians 2 solidified the link between Knowhere, Peter's father, and Meredith's cancer, meaning the conclusions wound up to be off-target (and lacked the initial "SHH" message that clues fans in to read the messages as one extended hint).

But we've got a suspicion that the link between Knowhere and Ego is far more... literal than the first movie suggested on its own.

NEXT: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Was%20Knowhere%20Once%20Ego%27s%20Skull%3F']

Did Knowhere Once Hold Ego's Skull?

Guardians Galaxy Knowhere Ego Brain

It struck us as odd from the very first reveal that James Gunn had decided to stray from the comic book roots of Ego the Living Planet. For those who don't know, in the world of Marvel Comics, Ego is... well, a Living Planet. Originally he was the result of comic legend Jack Kirby's notion of a space virus growing so large, it becomes sentient, and the size of a planet. Its history would later be changed into a creation of The Stranger, but Ego is best described for modern audiences as one of several Elders of the Universe. Immortal, ancient beings with ties to the birth of the Universe.

So why did James Gunn decide to make him a Celestial, instead? Thankfully for fans of only the Marvel films, they still know what being a "Celestial" means, since the word was previously dropped in the original Guardians of the Galaxy. When the team break out of the Kyln and intend to sell the Power Stone to the Collector, they make a trip to his base on the space station called Knowhere. Except it's not a space station at all, but what looks to be a colossal skull floating in a green cloud.

You might think that word of such a place would get around, but nobody aside from Gamora seems to be familiar with it. As Peter and Drax look on stunned, asking what they're looking at, Gamora explains its true nature:

"It's called Knowhere. The severed head of an ancient celestial being... Hundreds of years ago the Tivan Group sent workers in to mine the organic matter within the skull. Bone, brain tissue, spinal fluid. All rare resources, highly valued in black markets across the galaxy."

The Marvel fans in the audience knew that her mention of a "celestial being" was a capital-C Celestial, since that's the same origin story as the comics. And just as in the movie, the actual Celestial who once claimed Knowhere as its head is a mystery.

Enter Ego. When welcoming Peter, Drax, and Gamora to his planet the ancient being explains his origin story in shockingly detailed fashion for both his guests and the audience. According to Ego himself, he doesn't actually know where he came from. He simply "awoke" drifting in the cosmos without any notion of who he was, or how he got there. Over the millions of years that followed, he grew, gained wisdom, and pulled the universe around him into the planet they all now stand on - having taken a human form to create his progeny across the universe.

What Ego does know, in his words to Gamora, is that "I'm what's called a Celestial, sweetheart." In essence, a god (small 'g'). And as he understands, or at least claims, he's the only one of his kind. That should immediately fill detail-oriented fans into confusion. Not only have fans already seen the evidence of one Celestial in Knowhere, but for those with some knowledge of the Marvel Comics Universe, the Collector revealed yet another. It's shown in his hologram explanation of the Infinity Stones, wielding the Power Stone to eradicate an entire planet (resembling the comic book Celestial Eson the Searcher).

So something doesn't quite add up. But before we go any further, let's run down the evidence. Knowhere is what remains of the skull of an ancient Celestial. Ego "awoke" in his current form as a massive Brain floating in space. And The Collector shows that at one time in the past, massive Celestials used the Infinity Stones to wreak havoc on the universe. Building a theory already?

Celestial Guardians of the Galaxy

We can't explicitly state that Knowhere the skull once housed Ego the brain, but it's certainly a connection or possibility that the audience was intended to consider - otherwise, James Gunn including a massive skull in one corner of his universe, and a massive brain in another is a truly odds coincidence. Add in the fact that the skull is introduced with a message suggesting it is "M3RDI7H QULLL X" and "MOMS CANCER," followed by a massive brain calling itself "Meredith Quill's Ex" and "Mom's Cancer" in the sequel... well, the coincidence would have to be cosmic (pun intended).

There is more evidence to support the idea, too. For starters, whatever mischief Ego may have gotten up to in his past life is clearly of the scale that invites cosmic punishment, or decapitation - since he managed to survive, and attempted to conquer the universe yet again. Also, it helps explain the biggest leap in logic in the entire sequel: that Ego created a perfect, functional humanoid body just by creating "what I imagined biological life to be like, down to the most minute detail." Seems like a major coincidence that he created a humanoid form based on no exposure to life, whatsoever, doesn't it? Especially since fans have already seen one Celestial in human form attempting the kind of domination that both a) resembles what Ego gets up to these days, and b) is the kind of thing punishable by the REAL powers of the Marvel Universe.

It may be a case of us working to fill in a logic gap that Guardians 2 hopes few will notice, but even his name, "Ego" is used to describe the part of the mind that is aware of itself. The part that would recognize its own sentience, and build a body for itself in its former image - without knowing it was even doing it.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Character Poster for Ego the Living Planet - Cropped

Add it all up, and it seems to be far too much evidence to not mean... something. If there is now evidence that Knowhere was the remains of Peter's father - before he was stripped of his Celestial body, limited to his Celestial brain - it's a major change in how the first film is viewed. If the hidden messages in that film's coordinates suggest that Meredith Quill's lover was a Celestial, and the cause of her cancer, years before Peter or the audience learned of either fact... it's hard to believe a secret that big couldn't be intentional.

Whether or not this is connected to Gunn's "Final Easter Egg," the alternative is that it's the kind of unintended, freak connection that comic book fans live for. We're good with either result.

What do you think of our theory? Does it seem like too much evidence to dismiss, or do you have another conclusion to draw? Let us know in the comments.

NEXT: Every Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Easter Egg & Cameo

Links: Reddit