Ego

"I call it the "Expansion". It is my purpose, and now it is yours as well. Over thousands of years I implanted thousands of extensions of myself on thousands of worlds. I need to fulfill life's one true purpose, to grow and spread, covering all that exists until everything is... me!"

- Ego revealing his "purpose" to Star-Lord

Ego was a Celestial, a primordial and extremely powerful being, and the father of Star-Lord. He originally appeared to be a caring and wise father with a cocky personality, similar to his own son. However, it is later revealed that he is a ruthless entity with a god complex who wishes to conquer the universe.

Reunited with his son in 2014, Ego desired to forward his plan to rule the universe through the Expansion by using his son's Celestial genes to terraform the planets he has planted alien seedlings on. Halfway through the Expansion, Ego's plans were foiled by the Guardians of the Galaxy and he was ultimately destroyed by their hand.

Apparition in the Galaxy
Millions of years ago, Ego was born as a member of a primordial, brain-like race known as the Celestials. He dwelled in loneliness for years, until he discovered his ability to manipulate matter and constructed a protective shell around himself. Over the course of many years, he kept building layers over the shell which evolved into a planet itself.

After this, he began to wonder about the purpose of his existence. To find purpose and meaning, Ego decided to create an humanoid avatar, which was an extension of his consciousness, to explore the galaxy and dwell among other galactic civilizations as well as learn about these civilizations.

Dividing and Conquering
As time progressed and as Ego had became one of the last few of his species, he began a desire to conquer the Universe for himself. He tried to achieve this feat by planting extraterrestrial seedlings across different planets in the cosmos. With the guise of an individual of the home species of the planets he had encountered across the universe, Ego had conceived multiple children in an attempt to terraform the planets and interlink them to his own body, as the mechanism required to activate the seedlings required two individuals with the Celestial gene. He hired the Ravager Captain Yondu Udonta to kidnap the children from their birth planets and bring them to him, in exchange for a handsome reward consisting of a large stock of Units. When his children failed to inherit his Celestial DNA, Ego murdered them and hid their skeletons in the deep of his self-constructed planet.

Experiences on Earth
"Soon, this world will be yours, Meredith." "Why did I ever fall in love with a spaceman?"

- Ego and Meredith Quill

In 1980, he visited Earth to plant one of his seeds in the woods of Missouri, United States. He met human Meredith Quill and awed her almost instantly, under the guise of a "spaceman". Ego and Meredith had conceived a child named Peter Quill, who would later go on to inherit Ego's Celestial DNA, becoming the first successful offspring of Ego's to do so. Ego then realized that he was genuinely falling in love with Meredith and that it would put him off-task to stay on Earth with her instead of forwarding his plans to conquer the galaxy. Because of this he deliberately, yet reluctantly, caused a inside Meredith's genes, leading to her death in 1988, before leaving Earth. Meredith described him to her son as an "angel," and a being of pure light, which her family seemed to regard as a delusion.

In the weeks leading up to Meredith's death, Ego asked Udonta to bring his son to him. Udonta, though, realized that Ego was killing his children and thus withheld from delivering his son to him. Yondu trained Peter Quill to be a Ravager as his protégé instead of delivering him to Ego. In between Meredith's death and the Quest for the Orb, Ego took up a new protégé, Mantis, and the two had resided on Ego's planetary form. After the Battle of Xandar, the Nova Corps did an analysis of Peter Quill. Irani Rael commented that Quill's father was something "they had never seen before."

Meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy
"After all these years I found you." "And who the hell are you?" "I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious. My name is Ego, and I'm your dad, Peter."

- Ego and Peter Quill

When Ayesha had sent her fleet of drones on the Guardians of the Galaxy team following the reason Rocket Raccoon had stolen their batteries after defeating the Abilisk, Ego appeared and used his immense power to destroy the fleet while the Guardians crashed on a nearby planet. On the planet, Ego met with the Guardians and revealed himself as Quill's father. During the meeting, Ego attempted to make Quill to return to his home accompanied by Gamora and Drax the Destroyer while Rocket and Groot kept an eye on Nebula. When Yondu Udonta and the Ravagers arrived to capture Quill and to hand him over to the Sovereign after being hired by Ayesha, Nebula tricked Groot to free her, while Taserface carries out the mutiny against Yondu and executes his loyalists with the help of Nebula, who leaves to kill her sister as revenge for being installed with cybernetic and robotic body parts by their father Thanos. While giving Quill, Gamora and Drax a tout of his planet, Ego explains that he is one of the primordial entities called Celestials, and exists in the form of the planet on which they are standing. He assumed a human guise to travel the universe and interact with other species, eventually meeting and falling in love with Quill's mother Meredith Quill. After Meredith's death, Ego paid Yondu to collect the young Quill, but Yondu never delivered the boy, and Ego had been searching for his son ever since. While looking at a statue of Meredith and Ego conceiving Quill built on his planet, Peter stated that people thought she was delusional because she thought Ego was from the stars, but they blamed the tumor for making her delusional. Peter and Ego get into a heated argument of why Ego never returned to see Meredith, to which Ego explained that his form needs to return to the planet regularly and most importantly he could not stand Meredith death. Peter angrily stated that Ego did not suffer as much as he did because he had to actually watched her pass away. Ego grievously stated that, despite him making countless mistakes for eons, Peter is not one of them and he wishes to be able to bond with his son, stating it is what Meredith would've wanted. He teaches Peter to focus on Ego's essence within the planet to harness energy to conjure up a ball, which Ego and Peter used to play a game of fetch, thus resulting in them bonding as father and son.

Meanwhile, Drax and Gamora meet with Mantis, Ego's assistant, and begin questioning her about Ego himself, as well as why she is with him. Nebula arrives on Ego's planet and attempts to kill Gamora, who survives and defeats her sister via a blaster gun, however, the two sisters begin to reach an uneasy alliance after Nebula reveals feeling hurt that Gamora only cared for herself when they were both prisoners of Thanos, and the two explore the planet. Gamora and Nebula discover thousands of skeletons hidden inside the caves of Ego's planet, and Gamora's feeling that Ego is hiding a secret from them appears to be right.

True Colors Revealed
"'My life, my love, my lady is the sea' ... Peter, this is the sea."

- Ego to Peter Quill before destroying his Walkman

Ego once again bonds with his son over their mutual love for earthly music, especially those which were Meredith's favorites. Ego then explained to Peter Quill that they both are immortal beings and have a purpose to fulfill. Ego reveals that in his travels to thousands of worlds, his discoveries were "utterly disappointing," and hypnotizes Quill, unlocking a Celestial state inside Quill willing to help him take over the universe. Ego explained that he conjured up seedlings, which he planted upon the thousands of planets he had visited, and that they were capable of terraforming them into new extensions of himself. He called this plan the Expansion. The problem with this plan is the seedlings could only be activated by the power of a second Celestial. To that end, he impregnated hundreds of women and hired Yondu Udonta to collect the children; they all failed to inherit the Celestial power, so Ego killed them, in a supposedly painless way. This went on for a long time, until he found Quill, whom Ego was proud because he is the first offspring to inherit the Celestial power.

Although in a Celestial trance, Quill is still able to maintain control over some of his senses due to the bond he has with his friends. Ego tries to fully win Peter over, but is interrupted when Peter asks Ego about his mother. Ego then reveals that he deliberately caused Meredith's death by planting a tumor into her brain himself, because he was genuinely starting to fall in love with her and almost abandoned his Expansion plan to live with her on Earth forever.

This admission jolted Quill back to his full senses and he blasts Ego's humanoid body apart by shooting him repeatedly with his Quad Blasters. Ego then reformed himself, briefly taking the form of Quill's role model David Hasselhoff in an attempt to convince him further, but seeing that Quill remains firmly against him, he attacked Quill with tentacles of blue energy from the floor to restrain him, one of them phasing through Quill's torso. Ego began to draw power from Quill to activate the seedlings, which expanded and began to terraform planets across the galaxy.

Battle on Ego's Planet
"Listen to me! You are a god! If you kill me, you'll be just like everybody else!" "What's so wrong with that?" "No!"

- Ego to Star-Lord

At this point, Mantis overcomes her fear of Ego and warns Drax, Gamora, and Nebula of Ego's plan just as Rocket, Yondu, Groot, and Kraglin Obfonteri arrive. The reunited Guardians reach the core of the planet, where Ego's brain is housed, and fight the Sovereign's arriving drones, having been alerted to the Guardians' location by the doomed Taserface, as well as Ego himself. Rocket makes a bomb out of the stolen Anulax Batteries that Groot proceeds to plant in Ego's brain, while Mantis uses her empathic power to cause Ego to sleep. The Guardians fight the Soverign's drones until all of them are destroyed.

They enjoyed a brief moment of victory before a piece of falling debris strikes Mantis, reawakening the furious Ego. Ego easily subdues all of the Guardians with his power and restarts the Expansion, while furiously demanding that Quill be on his side, since because they are both gods, they are the only beings that matter. With Yondu's encouragement, Quill discovers his Celestial power and battles Ego to allow the other Guardians to escape and for Groot to finally plant the bomb on Ego's brain.

Until this point, both Star-Lord and Ego were about equally matched, however Quill gains the upper hand through Groot's help with the bomb. Ego senses the bomb on his brain and pleads with Peter, telling him that if he lets Ego die, he will lose his "godhood". Peter accepts this, much to Ego's horror. The bomb explodes and destroys Ego's brain, while Peter watches his father's avatar disintegrate into sand right in front of him. Without Ego's essence, his planet begins to break down in a string of massive explosions, ending his reign to conquer the galaxy and killing him for good.

Personality
"It doesn't need to be like this Peter. Why are you destroying our chance? Stop pretending you aren't what you are! One in billions? Trillions, even more! What greater purpose can life possibly have to offer?"

- Ego to Peter Quill

When Ego met with the women he impregnated from different planets, such as Meredith Quill, he came off as an otherworldly traveller who only wishes to learn more about other species. However, he later describes himself as alternately "the sailor" and "the sea" from a song Peter's mother loved, demonstrating Ego's belief that he is the only thing that matters in the universe, at least from his perspective. Ego's initial desire was to find life, but when he found it he considered it to be disappointing compared to himself and other Celestials. After this he came to a realization that he was not to walk among that life but he found a new purpose which was using The Expansion to spread across the universe and become the sole life-form in existence. Being a Celestial, Ego has lived for longer than most other civilizations. This gave him a god complex; having witnessed countless species adapt and evolve. Ego does not consider anyone to have reached his standard of species perfection except for his own race which he has described as godlike and considers expanding his own power by transforming the galaxy into extensions of himself and his progeny as the only meaning of his eternal life.

To that end, Ego is an emotionally cold, ruthless and manipulative being. Upon meeting with the Guardians of the Galaxy and his son, Peter Quill, he presented himself as a cocky albeit wise father, sharing Quill's sense of humor and love of pop culture references to lull him into a false sense of security and eventually unlock his Celestial abilities. However, his belief of universal cleansing was too powerful to hide completely as Yondu Udonta un-fondly remembers Ego as a "jackass" when he was hired by him. He cares very little about his progeny, having abducted hundreds of his own children from their homes and families and murdering them when they failed to show any powers. Ego strongly believes that friends, family or emotional connections are worth little compared to his end goal of The Expansion as well as the fact that unlike the Celestials, they will die out eventually. However he is charming, and hides his true nature by acting welcoming, friendly, and even humble, such as calling his planet no smaller than Earth's moon and stating himself as a god "with a small g."

Despite his egocentricity, insanity and ruthless belief of universal cleansing, Ego genuinely fell in love with Earthling, Meredith Quill. He went to visit her three times until it got in the way of his plans to transform the universe, so he "reluctantly" put a tumor within her brain to kill her. Ego had a degree of fondness for Quill because he was a Celestial like him. He wanted to rule the Galaxy with Quill by his side and later implored him to stop resisting him as he didn't wish to fight. However, If Quill hadn't shown any Celestial abilities, Ego would have likely killed him along with the rest of his non-Celestial children.

Powers
"You own a planet that can destroy two dozen spaceships without a suit. What are you, exactly?" "I'm what's called a Celestial, sweetheart."

- Ego to Gamora

Celestial Physiology: Ego is a Celestial, a primordial race of brain-like entities with extremely powerful capabilities. He has displayed some of his abilities. "Doesn't being immortal get boring after a while?" "It's not as long as you have a purpose, Peter."

- Star-Lord and Ego

"Over millions of years, I learned to control the molecules around me. I grew smarter, and stronger. And I continued building from there, layer by layer, the very planet you walk on now."
 * Immortality: Ego, like his race, was immortal and ancient. While giving Star-Lord, Gamora and Drax a tour of his planet, he stated that he was millions of years old. He can only be truly killed if his true form, his brain, is destroyed.

- Ego to the Guardians of the Galaxy

"Peter, I have found meaning." "I..I can see it. Eternity."
 * Molecular Manipulation: Ego is able to manipulate matter to a molecular level thanks to his Celestial powers. While giving Star-Lord, Drax and Gamora a tour of his planet, he stated that it took him millions of years to master this ability. During the battle with his son, he created various melee weapons out of matter and even created a humanoid giant of himself.
 * Planetary Form: Ego was able to use his molecular manipulation to create a shell around himself, which after millions of years, he later evolved into a planet. He can manipulate the planet on a molecular level. His brain is stored in the center of his planet's core, while his energy form could traverse the planet and use matter it manipulated to make itself physically manifest. While directly possessing the planet, he could more seamlessly manipulate and reshape its structure, such as to cause the ground to trap members of the Guardians of the Galaxy, no matter where they were.
 * Seedlings Creation: Ego is able to create alien seedlings in order to terraform the worlds across the universe into his own extensions. When activated, these seedlings begin to terraform the planet into extensions of Ego's power and consciousness.
 * Energy Manipulation: Ego, like other Celestials, can manipulate energy, which for him, takes the form of a blue, fiery light that he could shape and transform into physical constructs. He once projected energy beams from his fingers that are able to unlock handcuffs. He even taught his son, Peter Quill, how to manipulate energy.
 * Energy Tentacles: He is able to create massive energy tentacles to combat and restrain Peter Quill and his allies. They could also phase through people to cause them pain and incapacitate them without inflicting damage, as they did to Peter Quill when they phased through his torso and his head.
 * Energy Blasts: He fired a few energy blasts from his planet which were powerful enough to destroy all of the Sovereign spaceships attacking the Guardians.
 * Energy Form: He can also mold the energy to create a humanoid form for himself. His energy could also directly possess the structure of the planet to allow him to more seamlessly manipulate and reshape it.
 * Power Imbuing: He used his energy manipulation powers to draw power form his son's essence to power his seedlings.
 * Superhuman Strength: As a Celestial, Ego's physical strength is at immense superhuman levels. He was able to casually crush Peter Quill's Walkman Headset in his hand, as well as smash through stones and propel his son across the vast underground center of his planet during their fight. It is also said by the Collector that these beings have such incalculable strength, that they can allegedly wield the Infinity Stones.
 * Superhuman Durability: In addition to his powerful strength, Ego also has superhuman durability which makes him almost impervious to physical attacks. His Avatars are also superhumanly durable. He was able to withstand his son's Celestial powers and attacks and crashing through rock at bullet-like speed.

- Ego to Star-Lord

"I wanted to experience what it was to be human. So I created what I thought a biological being would be like."
 * Hypnosis Inducement: Ego has the ability to make people docile and susceptible to suggestion, which he would use to hypnotize his children into activating his seedlings. He did this with a touch to the person's forehead, sending a surge of energy into their heads, as he did to Star Lord to make eyes black with small, star-like lights, and allowed him to see the multiple seeds across the galaxy. However they can resist this power if the bond they have for someone was so strong which would help them snap out of the effects or if there extremely angered, like Star-Lord bond for his friends and mom while being angry at Ego for killing his mom.

- Ego to Peter Quill


 * Biological Manipulation: Ego has also shown to be able to create and manipulate biological matter, including his own living avatars.
 * Health Manipulation: Ego created a tumor inside Meredith Quill's brain in order to kill her.
 * Avatar Creation: In order to interact with the intelligent lifeforms that populates the universe, Ego created for himself an humanoid avatar who reflected his idea of a biological humanoid being. The Avatar is an extension of his own consciousness and is provided with a digestive system, pain receptors and a reproductive system, as Ego explained to Drax that he "does indeed have a penis". His avatar was even able to pass urine.
 * Reconstitution: The body can reconstitute itself when damaged, and rebuild from the ground when completely destroyed. When Star-Lord repeatedly shot Ego after hearing his confession, Ego's avatar began repairing itself almost immediately.
 * Shape-Shifting: Ego's features can also be heavily altered, as he showed to his son Peter Quill when transforming himself into David Hasselhoff.
 * Flight: When battling Quill across the center of his planet, he has revealed his ability to fly through air at bullet-like speeds along with his son.

Abilities
"I had Yondu deliver some of them to me. It broke the Ravager code, but I compensated him generously."
 * Genius-Level Intellect: Ego is a highly intelligent being, to the point of being so smart so he can even outsmart the Guardians into being friends with him. He stated that millions of years of learning has made him wiser and much smarter.
 * Master Tactician: Ego is able to deal with situations of danger or conflict as he uses his incredible intelligence to handle those situations.
 * Master Strategist: In order to meet with the Guardians, Ego managed to make a move that would cause them to meet him by aiding them to defeat the drones.
 * Combatant: As a Celestial, Ego is a fierce warrior nearly from birth. He manages to fight and defeat his enemies easily because of his powers and planetary form.

- Ego to Star-Lord


 * Resources: Ego has also amassed vast amounts of Units and other resources, due to having been able to generously compensate Yondu and his Ravagers to deliver his children to him. It is also possible that he used his powers to generate the Units as well.

Family

 * Peter Quill/Star-Lord - Son and Attempted Victim
 * Thousands of Unnamed Offspring † - Children and Victims

Allies

 * Meredith Quill † - Former Lover and Victim
 * Thousands of Unnamed Former Lovers

Enemies

 * Guardians of the Galaxy - Attempted Victims
 * Gamora
 * Drax the Destroyer
 * Rocket Raccoon - Killer
 * Groot - Killer
 * Mantis - Former Assistant
 * Yondu Udonta † - Former Employee
 * Nebula - Attempted Victim
 * Kraglin Obfonteri - Former Employee and Attempted Victim
 * Sovereign
 * Ayesha

Trivia

 * In the comics, Ego was a planet given sentience by the Stranger, who settled into conquering other worlds early during his existence, and coming into conflict against Thor and the Nova Corps. Ego's humanoid avatar bears resemblance to Ego Prime.
 * In the comics, Peter Quill's father was J'Son of Spartax, the Emperor of the Spartoi Empire.
 * While Ego was on Earth, he drove an orange and teal convertible. The same colors would later be used by Peter for the Milano.
 * Ego is the first movie main antagonist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who has blood ties with the main protagonist of the movie he appeared in (he is the father of Peter Quill).
 * Ego was first mentioned in Guardians of the Galaxy, making him the first movie main antagonist to be mentioned before his debut.
 * Ego seems to be a fan of the music band, calling them "one of Earth's best musicians".

Behind the Scenes

 * Following the release of the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, only four people knew the identity of Peter Quill's father: James Gunn, Kevin Feige, Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn. James Gunn also confirmed that Jason of Spartax was not intended to be Peter Quill's father as in the comics.
 * James Gunn himself, at the San Diego Comic Con on July 23, 2016, revealed that Ego was Peter Quill's father.
 * owned the cinematic rights to Ego the Living Planet, and Marvel Studios, in order to use him in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, traded his right in order to change the powers of, who was later used in . Gunn was unaware that Marvel did not own the character, and was very lucky to have the deal work out: "When I first pitched Ego as Quill's father, I THOUGHT we owned the character. After I had worked out a very elaborate story with Ego the Living Planet as a very important part of the Marvel cosmic universe, I learned that we actually didn't own the character. I had no back up plan, and it would be nearly impossible to just drop another character in. Thank God Fox came to us and wanted to make a trade."
 * Coincidentally, both "Ego the Living Planet" and "Negasonic Teenage Warhead" are names of songs by the band.
 * was offered to portray the character before Kurt Russell, but he turned it down for  movie.