MCU Theory Gives Star-Lord's Avengers: Infinity War Joke A Heartbreaking Twist
Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) isn't at his best in "Avengers: Infinity War," and it's not difficult to figure out why. Not only does Rocket (Bradley Cooper) ditch his fellow Guardians of the Galaxy to help Thor (Chris Hemsworth), but Thanos (Josh Brolin) takes Gamora (Zoe Saldana) away and sacrifices her to acquire the Soul Stone. As if that's not disorienting enough, he then runs into Earth heroes like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who are also in a race against time to stop Thanos before he can destroy half of all life in the universe.
During his first interaction with Iron Man, Star-Lord claims that he's not from Earth, he's from Missouri. The Armored Avenger then reminds him that Missouri is on Earth, which is a funny line, but it is a bit confusing. Star-Lord is from Earth, so how does he not know that Missouri is on the planet? According to Reddit user u/Soyoulikedonutseh, this could come down to the fact that Star-Lord has forgotten Earth is called Earth and not Terra. The Ravagers — the group he grew up with — and other space-faring folks refer to Earth as Terra, which likely led to him forgetting Earth's name after hearing Terra used so often.
Then again, other Marvel Cinematic Universe fans on Reddit have a different theory when it comes to Star-Lord's apparent obliviousness about Earth's name.
Did Star-Lord really forget Earth is Earth?
While it's not impossible that Star-Lord forgot about Earth's real name, knowing what we know about his story, this theory does have some holes. When he left Earth — or was captured by the Ravagers, rather — he was already 8 years old, meaning he wasn't an infant by any stretch and wasn't clueless as to where he lived. Additionally, he was at least grown enough to remember his late mother, Meredith Quill (Laura Haddock), so it's hard to imagine he'd suddenly forget that he came from Earth. Thus, another theory proposes he didn't forget Earth in "Avengers: Infinity War" at all.
A since-deleted Redditor raised the question of Star-Lord forgetting about Earth in a Reddit thread of their own, expressing their frustration with the overall scene where he seems to reveal his lack of knowledge on his home planet. Easing their irritation some, commenter u/STALAL brought up the idea that maybe Star-Lord simply wanted the Avengers to think he didn't know what Earth is. "I read somewhere that it was a ploy to see whether tony and co really were earthlings or not, a test," they wrote. If nothing else, at least this makes Star-Lord look less like a forgetful goof and more like a tactical leader.
At the end of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," Star-Lord returns to Earth to live with his grandfather, Jason Quill (Gregg Henry). With his MCU story still going, we'll have to wait and see if he tries to correct himself from calling Earth Terra by mistake, or if he'll have no trouble calling the planet by its real name in the future.