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Eternals’ mid-credits scene introduced two new characters, one of whom has ties to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s Adam Warlock.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Eternals, now in theaters.
In the weeks leading up to the release of Eternals, the first of two post-credit scenes was released onto the world wide web to the chagrin of the studio and the wrath of fans. Ire stemmed from the spoiler itself and, in some part, what felt like celebrity mining reminiscent of Ed Sheeran in Game of Thrones. The scene depicts Eros, played by Harry Styles, teleporting onto the Domo as its crew blindly heads out into the cosmos to find other Eternals.
Eros, also known as Starfox, offers them his aid as a fellow Eternal and suggests that not only are their kin in dire need of help but also that he knows exactly where to find them. Lost in the froth of it all was the debut of Pip the Troll, voiced by Patton Oswald, also making his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Pip is universally renowned for his bacchanal passions, peerless audacity and stalwart companionship with Adam Warlock.
Pip, created by and crafted in the image of Jim Starlin, was once a prince on the world of Laxidazia who caroused with trolls one night and was shocked to wake up as a troll himself the next day. Self-imposed trouble shadows him like an impending avalanche throughout his misadventures, right up until the moment he is captured by zealots who have called for the extinction of all trolls due to their innate resistance to mental manipulation. His MCU introduction in Eternals comes as quite the surprise.
Adam Warlock’s existence, on the other hand, has been a thing of concrete rumor ever since the post-credits scene from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 but was recently officially confirmed by James Gunn with the casting of Will Poulter. Now that it is clear that they both will exist in this phase of the MCU, their comic book partnership may yield interesting insights into some of Kevin Feige’s narrative focus going forward.
In the comics, Adam Warlock and Pip met on a starship called The Great Divide, part of The Empire of the Universal Church of Truth’s fleet representing an enslaved intergalactic theocracy of a thousand worlds. Warlock had been captured and penned with other intelligent lifeforms whose bodies did not conform to bipedal humanoid classifications and as such, were deemed as less than sacred in the eyes of the Universal Church. They all came from worlds subjugated by the Church and were destined to have their molecules disassembled and reorganized into more useful configurations to the clergy. Pip the Troll was among them.
Warlock hunted their captors across the ship and dispatched them one by one while Pip made his way to an escape shuttle, waiting for Warlock to arrive. As the bearer of the unslakable Soul Gem, something that was growing further and further outside of his control, Warlock was worried about Pip accompanying him on his quest to destroy the Church’s false god Magus. Pip however never entertained the possibility of another option and plotted a course towards their unknown intertwined destinies. This was the beginning of a partnership that spawned dozens upon dozens of adventures across space, time and consciousness.
Pip makes an appearance, and often a substantial contribution, in almost all of the varied Infinity crossover events in the ’90s and early aughts. Warlock and the Infinity Watch, created by Jim Starlin and Angel Medina, involves the aftermath of the Infinity Gauntlet crossover that eventually led to the defeat of Thanos and was adapted into the films Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Warlock is tasked with keeping the Infinity Gems safe so that they can never again be collected into a weapon of untold power and entrusts each one to an appointed guardian, granting the Space Gem to Pip. The MCU doesn’t seem likely to revisit the power of the Infinity Stones in forthcoming features, but in this instance, the nature of the trust and fraternity between these two characters may be more important than their previously scripted interactions, especially as potential conflict with the Celestials looms.
Pip’s debut in Eternals holds some interesting implications, especially as they relate to the Infinity Stones. Adam Warlock is as central a character to the Stones as Thanos in the comics continuity, maybe even more so since possession of the Soul Stone was almost an original feature of his character and his many arcs throughout comicdom revolve around the Gems in some manner or another. After relinquishing the Space Gem, Pip remained imbued with much of its power, retaining the ability to transport groups of individuals over immense distances and locate anyone anywhere in the universe.
When he arrives on the ship with Eros, it’s unclear if he gets there due to these residual powers, meaning that he has already come into contact with the Space Stone, or is simply using a more technologically mundane means of teleportation. The visual effect seems more akin to Heimdall’s access to the Bifrost versus a portal that one simply steps through as previous uses of the Infinity Stone were depicted. They tell the other Eternals that they know how to find Sersi, Phastos and Kingo. Is this also a result of Infinity Stone exposure or were they using the Celestial communication sphere as a type of locator beacon instead?
Eternals makes it clear that these characters will appear again, whether in a yet-to-be-announced sequel of their own, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Thor: Love and Thunder or some other cosmic-adjacent MCU property. As such, the potential duo of Adam Warlock and Pip the Troll will be something for fans to eagerly anticipate.
To see Pip the Troll’s MCU debut, Eternals is now playing in theaters.
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