Adam Warlock and Thanos may never face off in the MCU

For a lot of Marvel Comics fans, Thanos is one of the greatest villains of all time, second only to the likes of Doctor Doom. Unfortunately, he probably won’t be taking on Adam Warlock in the MCU.

Thanos is undoubtedly one of the greatest villains of all time. That is a sentiment the comic book fans who read Marvel throughout the 1990s undoubtedly feel even more so. While their enmity goes back further than that, it’s hard to imagine the story of Thanos in the comics not including Adam Warlock.

But that has been the case in the Marvel Cinematic Universe up until this point. The story of Thanos’ machinations throughout the franchise left Warlock out, and unless something really big happens, it looks really unlikely that these two frenemies will ever face off on the big screen.

Adam Warlock debuts

Created to be the pinnacle pf human evolution, Adam Warlock was originally called Him. After his first rebirth, he promptly took on the name most fans know him by. Over the next several years, Warlock would become involved in several cosmic events.

But after debuting in 1967, he rose to prominence in the 1991 Marvel Comics event titled Infinity Gauntlet. Much like in the MCU, Thanos collected all six Infinity Stones and used them to wipe out half the universe. Unlike the MCU, he did this to curry favor with Lady Death.

While this wasn’t the first time Adam Warlock and Thanos had crossed paths, it was the most epic to date. Warlock was ostensibly the leader of the resistance, using all of the universe’s heroes and forces as pawns in his larger game to get the Gauntlet into safer hands.

After Thanos was defeated, many of the biggest cosmic crossover events hinged on Adam Warlock’s involvement. That being said, the character had faded into the background by the 2000s and has been used much more sporadically ever since.

Thanos dies, Adam Warlock has yet to appear

Once it became clear than Thanos was the big bad in the MCU, comic book fans started looking for any hint that Adam Warlock would soon appear. It didn’t take long for the Easter Eggs and cameos to start flying.

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and Thor: The Dark World, The Collector had a cocoon in his collection that looked a lot like the one Adam Warlock regenerates in. GOTG Vol. 2 had a similar moment in a post credits scene when a different golden cocoon appeared.

The problem was that neither of these references led to the appearance of Adam Warlock. And as anyone who watched Avengers: Endgame knows, the defeat of Thanos was achieved without the support of this key comic book character.

While rumors of Adam Warlock debuting in the MCU continue to swirl, facing off against Thanos seems rather unlikely since the Mad Titan is now dead. This means that this iconic duo might never meet on film screens, as friends or foes.

Could a faceoff still happen?

At this point, it would be incredibly difficult to have Adam Warlock and Thanos interact in any capacity. One of them doesn’t exist yet and the other was literally turned to dust. That being said, death has rarely stopped comic book characters in the past.

There are numerous ways in the comics that both heroes and villains have come back from the dead, and Thanos has taken advantage of many of them. If anyone can make that happen in the MCU, it’s movie Thanos. The man has a way of surviving.

As usual, there are a lot of rumors surrounding Adam Warlock and the MCU. Some have theorized that he could appear in Thor: Love and Thunder or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But those kind of rumors have gone around before and amounted to nothing.

If Adam Warlock ever makes his MCU debut, hopefully the producers find a way to have him face off with Thanos. While the first complete arc of the MCU played out brilliantly, it’s still hard not to wonder what it would have looked like with Warlock in the mix.

Would you like to see Adam Warlock and Thanos face off in the MCU? Let us know in the comments below!