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 to Star-Lord

Ego was a Celestial, a primordial and extremely powerful being, and the biological father of Peter Quill. A ruthless, megalomaniacal entity possessing a god complex, Ego desired meaning to conquer the entire universe via an omnicidal extinction-level event known as the Expansion, which would terraform all life-sustaining planets by implanting alien seedlings into new extensions of himself. The process required two Celestials, so Ego traveled throughout the cosmos, impregnating various extraterrestrial species and siring thousands of children, hiring the Yondu Ravager Clan to abduct and transport his offspring. When his children failed to inherit the Celestial gene, Ego would then kill them all painlessly.

After Ego heard a tale of the man from Earth who held an Infinity Stone without dying, he realized this man must have been the son he fathered with Meredith Quill, whom Yondu Udonta failed to deliver. After Ego reunited with his biological son, he bonded with Quill after confirming his son successfully inherited the Celestial gene, and proceeded to explain to his son about his purpose of expanding the universe by placing Quill under a trance to gain his compliance. However, when Ego confessed he was responsible for Meredith's death, Quill snapped out of his hypnosis and reunited with his fellow Guardians, now including Mantis, to kill Ego and foil the Expansion, thus saving billions of innocent lives.

Apparition in the Galaxy
Over millions of years ago, Ego's origin remained unknown by nature although Ego remembered himself being born unaccompanied, parentless and bodiless; he came into existence as a being belonging to an ancient primordial race known as the Celestials. Despite dwelling in extreme loneliness for years, he discovered the ability to manipulate molecules and matter, which led him to construct a protective core around himself. Over the course of many years, he continued to build planetary layers over the core which evolved into a planet itself. The interstellar coordinates of Ego's planet were G52 22C848T12F+E16UC22.

Afterwards, Ego wondered about the purpose of his existence. To search for purpose and meaning, Ego created a biological humanoid avatar, which was an extension of his consciousness, to explore the cosmos and dwell among galactic civilizations to learn and experience about all galactic civilizations he encountered.

Dividing and Conquering
During his exploration into the cosmos, he found his discoveries "disappointing" when it came to dwelling among civilizations in all thousands of planets he explored. Upon realization, Ego conjured up seedlings and implanted them on thousands of planets before the seedlings were capable of terraforming all visited worlds into new extensions of himself.

Ego called this plan the 'Expansion'. He only had one problem; the seedlings could only be activated with the combination of two Celestials' powers. Therefore, he impregnated thousands of female alien species then hired Yondu Udonta to deliver the children; on the other hand, the children all failed to inherit the Celestial gene so Ego killed them painlessly and hid their skeletal remains in the depths of his self-constructed planet.

Experiences on Earth
"My heart is yours, Meredith Quill." "I can't believe I fell in love with a spaceman."

- Ego and Meredith Quill

In the late 1970s, Ego visited Earth to plant his seedling in the wooded areas of Missouri, United States. Later, he met human Meredith Quill and awed her almost instantly, under his disguise as a "spaceman". During their romantic relationship, in 1980, Ego and Meredith conceived their first child named Peter Quill, who would successfully inherit Ego's Celestial DNA, becoming his first offspring to grant the power of the Celestials. Ego realized that he was genuinely infatuated with Meredith and that his feelings for her could put him off-task to settle with her instead of forwarding his plans to conquer the cosmos. Because of this distraction, Ego deliberately (yet reluctantly) implanted a on her, leading to her death in 1988, before leaving Earth. In the hospital before death, Meredith described Ego to her son as 'an angel' and 'a being composed of pure light', which her entire family regarded as a delusion.

Over the weeks leading to Meredith's death, Ego instructed Udonta to deliver his son to him. Udonta, however, now realized that Ego has been recently killing all of his prior children that he delivered to him. Horrified and guilt-ridden, Yondu decided not to deliver the boy. Instead, Yondu trained Quill to become a Ravager and his protégé, becoming a surrogate father to him (albeit a cantankerous one). Yondu never revealed the truth about Ego to Quill so as not to frighten him, and always told him that he kept him as part of his clan because he needed a small boy who seemed useful enough to sneak through tight places to steal items.

In between Meredith's death and the Quest for the Orb, Ego took up a new protégé, Mantis, and the two resided on Ego's planet.

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 dispatched hundreds of fleet drones on the guardians following the reason Rocket Raccoon stole their batteries after defeating the Abilisk, Ego appeared unseen and shot immense projectile blasts to hundreds of the Sovereign fleets before the Guardians crashed on the local planet known as Berhert. As the Guardians remain stranded on the planet, Ego's Ship arrived then landed on the ground of Berhert, where Ego, along with Mantis, encountered the Guardians and revealed himself as Quill's biological father. When Ego, Mantis and the Guardians spent time camping, Ego attempted to convince Quill to return to his home and show him his special heritage. Quill went aboard to the ship with Ego and Mantis, accompanied by Gamora and Drax the Destroyer while Rocket and Groot stay to eye on Nebula. When Yondu Udonta and the Ravagers arrived on Berhert to capture Quill and hand him over to the Sovereign after Ayesha hired him, Nebula tricked Groot to free her, while Taserface carried out the mutiny against Yondu and executes his loyalists with Nebula's aid, who leaves to kill Gamora as vengeance for having her left arm replaced with cybernetic and robotic parts by their father Thanos. Upon arrival, Ego gives Quill, Gamora and Drax a tour to his planet. As Gamora questioned him, Ego explains that he is called a Celestial, and exists in the planetary form they are walking on. He assumed a humanoid disguise to explore the universe and interact with other sentient species, eventually meeting and falling in love with Quill's mother Meredith Quill. After Meredith's death, Ego compensated Yondu to collect the young Quill, although Yondu never delivered the boy, and instead, Ego had long been searching for his son ever since.

Bonding with Star-Lord
"Over the millions and millions of years of my existence, I have made many mistakes Peter. But you are not one of them. Please give me the chance to be the father that she would have wanted me to be. There is so much that I need to teach you about this planet and the light within. They are part of you Peter."

- Ego to Star-Lord

While gazing at a statue of Meredith Quill and Ego conceiving Peter Quill built on his planet, Quill stated that his family back on Earth thought she was delusional because she thought Ego was from the stars, but they blamed the tumor for making her delusional. Quill and Ego both got into a heated argument about why Ego never returned to see Meredith, to which Ego explained that his humanoid form must return to his planet regularly otherwise his planet will decay if he didn't return; most importantly, he could not stand Meredith's death, claiming Quill could not understand how this felt.

Quill angrily exclaimed that Ego never suffered as much as he did because he had actually watched her pass away. Ego grievously stated that, despite him making countless mistakes for eons, Quill is not one of them and he wishes to be the father who bonds with his son, stating it is what Meredith wished for. He teaches Quill to focus on Ego's essence within the planet to harness energy to conjure up an energy ball, which Ego and Quill used to play a game of catch, thus resulting a bonding between father and son.

Meanwhile, Drax the Destroyer and Gamora met with Mantis, Ego's assistant, and began questioning her about Ego himself, as well as why she is with him. Nebula arrived on Ego's planet and attempted to kill Gamora, who survived and defeated her sister via a blaster gun; however, the two sisters began to reach an uneasy alliance after Nebula revealed in pain that Gamora only cared for herself when they were both prisoners of Thanos, and the two explored the planet. Gamora and Nebula discovered thousands of skeletons hidden inside the caves of Ego's planet, and Gamora's feeling that Ego was hiding a secret from them appeared 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 earth music, especially those which were Meredith's favorites. Ego, after Quill had a falling out with Gamora, then explained to his son that they both are immortal beings who have a purpose to fulfill. Ego revealed his plans, during which he hypnotized Quill, unlocking a Celestial state inside Quill that was willing to help him take over the universe. He continues to reveal his plans to Quill then shouts out he's not alone for the first in years or in his life.

Ego notices Quill starting to fight off his control, as Quill was still able to maintain control over his senses due to the bond he has for his friends. Ego tries get Quill back under his control by tricking him, and it almost works until Quill asks Ego about his mother. As Quill wonders if Ego really did love Meredith, his father answers that he did, but because of this feeling, he almost abandoned his Expansion plans. Ego would have stayed on Earth forever if he had visited her one more time, so then he reveals that he deliberately caused Meredith's death by planting the tumor in her brain, although doing so broke his heart.

This admission snaps Quill out of the trance 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 just to mock him. Realizing 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


"Who in the hell do you think you are?!" "You killed my mother!" "I tried so hard to find the form that best suited you and this is the thanks I get? You really need to grow up! I wanted to do this together, but I suppose you’ll have to learn by spending the next thousand years as a battery!"

- Ego and Star-Lord

At this point, Mantis overcomes her own 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 Sovereign'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.

Death
"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

Until this point, both Star-Lord and Ego were about equally matched, however Quill gained the upper hand through Groot's help with the bomb. Ego sensed the bomb on his brain and pleaded with Quill, telling him that if he let Ego die, he would lose his godhood and be normal like everyone else. Choosing his friends over his omnicidal father, Quill accepted to be normal as the bomb went off, much to Ego's horror. The bomb destroyed Ego's brain, while Quill watched his father's avatar disintegrate into sand right in front of him. Without Ego's essence, his planet began to break down in a string of massive explosions, ending his reign to conquer the galaxy as his human form disintegrated and his planet form exploded.

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 meaning can life possibly have to offer?"

- Ego to Peter.

When Ego met with the females he impregnated from all life-sustaining planets, including Meredith Quill, he appeared as an otherworldly explorer who wishes to learn more about other species. However, he later describes himself as alternately "the sailor" and "the sea" from a song Quill'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. That said, 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. Ego may have felt some grief for murdering all of his children as he needed Mantis to help him sleep though the only answer she gave was because of his progeny and not of any guilt or otherwise.

Mantis' role in the relationship between her and Ego acts as evidence towards his superior and somewhat abusive personality. Although not obvious, Ego kept Mantis on his planet purely for his own benefit. Disregarding the importance for her to be exposed to other lifeforms, Ego did not care for Mantis and autonomy as a person, but only himself. In the seduction model Ego shows Quill how he procreated with many species across the galaxy. Though it is entirely possible that he used his false charm to impregnate them, one seemed to be a child, implying Ego was not bound by the morality of age to create his progeny.

Powers
"You own a planet, and can destroy two dozen spaceships without a suit. What are you, exactly?" "I'm what's called a Celestial, sweetheart." "A Celestial like a god?" "Well..small G son."

- Ego to Gamora and Star-Lord Celestial Physiology: Ego is a Celestial, a primordial race of brain-like entities with vast supernatural power, capable of manipulating matter and energy. He has displayed some of his abilities on the list below.

"Doesn't eternity get boring?" "Not if you have a purpose, Peter."

- Star-Lord and Ego


 * 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.
 * Superhuman Strength: As a Celestial, Ego's physical strength is at immense superhuman levels. He was able to casually crush 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, due to the fact 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. He was also able to stand outside of his ship in the vacuum of space unfazed.

"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."

- Ego to the Guardians of the Galaxy


 * 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.
 * Matter Manipulation: During the battle with his son, he created various melee weapons out of matter and even created a humanoid giant of himself.
 * Flight: When battling Quill across the center of his planet, he was able to hover and fly through air at bullet-like speeds along with his son, seemingly by using the surrounding matter to propel himself.

"The planet is Ego. A dog would not invite a flea to live on his back."

- Mantis


 * 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 essentially descibes his powers as "light". In particular, this is a blue, fiery light that he could shape and transform into physical constructs. He once projected radiance beams from his fingers that are able to unlock handcuffs. He even taught his son, Peter Quill, how to manipulate light.
 * Light Tentacles:StarLordEgo-WalkmanDestruction.jpg in his light tentacle]] He is able to create massive light tentacles to combat and restrain Quill and his allies. They could also phase through people to cause them pain and incapacitate them without inflicting damage, as they did to Quill when they phased through his torso and his head. He also used these tendrils to tether himself to his ship while standing outside of it, seemingly drawing energy from the to shoot out projectiles and destroy the Sovereign fleet.
 * Light Beams: He projected a few blasts while standing outside his ship which were powerful enough to destroy all of the Sovereign spaceships attacking the Guardians.
 * Light Form: He can also mold the energy to create a humanoid form for himself. His radiance could also directly possess the structure of the planet to allow him to more seamlessly manipulate and reshape it.
 * Power Drawing: He used his light manipulation powers to draw the Celestial powers from his son's essence to activate his seedlings.
 * Hypnosis Inducement: Ego has the ability to make people docile and susceptible to suggestion with a touch to the victim's forehead, sending a surge of energy into their minds. He would use this to compel his children into activating his seedlings. He did this to Star Lord to make his eyes black with small, star-like lights, and allowed him to see the multiple seeds across the galaxy. However, they can resist if the bond they have for someone was so strong which would help them snap out of the effects, or if they are extremely angered, like Star-Lord bond for his friends and mom while being angry at Ego for killing his mom.
 * Biological Manipulation: Ego has also shown to be able to create and manipulate biological matter, including his own living avatars, which he creates to experience what it is like to be human.

"It broke my heart to put that tumor in her head."

- Ego to Peter Quill


 * Health Manipulation: Ego created a tumor inside Meredith Quill's brain in order to kill her.

"I got a penis." "Ha!" "And it's not half bad. I’ve also got pain receptors, a digestive system, and all the accompanying junk. I wanted to experience what it truly meant to be human as I set out amongst the stars."

- Ego and Drax


 * 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. His 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". However, it requires periodic returns to his main body to regenerate in the light of his planet to continue functioning.
 * 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. Even during his battle with his son, the Avatar always repairs itself if it took too much damage.

"I tried so hard to find the form that best suited you, and this is the thanks I get?!"

- Ego to Peter Quill


 * Shapeshifting: Ego's features can also be heavily altered, as he showed to his son Peter Quill when transforming himself into David Hasselhoff.

Abilities

 * Genius-Level Intellect: Ego is a highly intelligent being, to the point of being so smart he can even outsmart the Guardians, and even manipulate them into being friends with him. He stated that millions of years of learning has made him wiser and much smarter. Also, all that experience allows him to deal with situations of danger or conflict, and gain the trust of others.
 * Resources: Ego has also amassed vast amounts of Units and other resources throughout his immortal life, due to having been able to generously compensate Yondu and his Ravagers to deliver his children to him. It is also possible that he could generate the Units with the aid of his matter manipulation powers.

Family

 * Peter Quill/Star-Lord - Son turned Enemy 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 - Former Allies and 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.
 * An alternate parallel of Ego used something similar to the Expansion in Exiles Comics #52-53. Using a Seed of Awareness to give Earth sentience, making it a living planet much like himself.
 * 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 a teal and orange . The same colors would later be used by Quill for the Milano. The car's license plate is the same of James Gunn's that he drove when he was in high school.
 * 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 is also the second main antagonist to have familial ties with the main protagonist of the movie he appears in (aside from Loki, adoptive brother of Thor)
 * 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 band Looking Glass, 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. Several days after the film's release, Gunn explained in an interview why he made the change: "I just don't like the character [J'son] very much," he said. "I also thought it was too much like a Star Wars thing because of the royalty and all of that."
 * Ego's youthful appearance in the prologue of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 resembles Kurt Russell's appearance in the 1980s. This was achieved by having Russell shoot the scene alongside Laura Haddock while wearing makeup and markers, with Aaron Schwartz studying Russell's performance and then mimicking it. Digital effects were then used to fuse part of Schwartz's skin onto Russell's body in post production. This process was very expensive and difficult, and took almost the entire post production period to perfect.
 * 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 to portray in .
 * John Casino and Todd Warren were stunt doubles for Kurt Russell in the role of Ego.