James Gunn Confirms Mantis-Related Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Easter Egg

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has more Easter eggs than the White House does in April — and the basket is only getting heavier, as director James Gunn recently confirmed another reference tucked inside the film. 

Over on Facebook, Gunn addressed fans' relentless mentions that they had spotted an Easter egg where Star-Lord's (Chris Pratt) father Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell) appears to have been with someone who looks like Mantis (Pom Klementieff), spotted in a diorama he shows Star-Lord. Within the film, we learn that Ego traveled across the stars to turn the galaxy into one big web of himself, so he'd technically be the Living Galaxy rather than just the Living Planet, by impregnating countless women in hopes of trying to father a child who carried the Celestial gene. Ego's breeding efforts were sadly unsuccessful, and they later perished when he attempted to use them as pawns in his scheme to take control of the universe. 

Gunn confirmed that yes, Ego did get frisky with a member of Mantis' species but no, fans "don't necessarily need to infer anything else from this information." in saying this, Gunn shut down the idea that Ego could be Mantis' biological father, that Mantis could be Star-Lord's half-sister, and that Mantis would be able to access Celestial power — all of which would have a huge impact on the Guardians franchise and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. 

In reality, Ego simply adopted Mantis after she was orphaned. If Mantis was one of Ego's real children, she would more than likely be dead, and fans wouldn't have gotten to see her use her incredible powers to kick some major butt in Avengers: Infinity War.

As Marvel movie lovers will remember, Gunn previously mentioned that there's an Easter egg in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that fans had yet to discover and might not ever be able to find. The bad news is that Ego getting his mack on with a Mantis-looking alien isn't it. But the double good news is that 1) the Easter egg is still ripe for the picking, and 2) there's another treasure hidden inside the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, an Easter egg Gunn is also confident no one will ever locate. This caused some to cry out that the director is lying about the Easter egg, but he insists he isn't — and once offered $100,000 to anyone who can prove him wrong. 

Marvel fans, you'd be wise to load up both Guardians films and take a magnifying glass to each scene — money and notoriety are on the line.