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 hidden main antagonist of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, he is 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 through an omnicidal extinction-level plan known as the Expansion, which would have terraformed all other planets via alien seedlings into extensions of himself. He would also impregnate women across the universe to achieve a child with the Celestial gene, as the Expansion required two Celestials for the function to flourish, and hired the Ravagers, led by Yondu Udonta to collect his children for him. Any that failed to harness Celestial energy were killed by Ego.

Years ahead of time in 2014, following the Battle of Xandar, Ego and his ward Mantis came across the Guardians of the Galaxy and was reunited with his Terran son, Peter Quill. Once Ego learned that Quill was the first of his endless count of offspring to inherit his own genes, Ego started the Expansion with a hypnotized Quill. However, his son managed to snap out of Ego's influence and with the Guardians' aid, their combined efforts finally killed Ego and ended the Expansion, saving billions of lives.

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. The interstellar coordinates of this planet were G52 22C848T12F+E16UC22.

After this, he began to wonder about the purpose of his existence. To find purpose and meaning, Ego decided to create a 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 Ego became one of the last few of his species, he eventually came to the conclusion that all life, other than his own, was meaningless and futile. His desire to conquer and assimilate the entire Universe as his own grew with time. He tried to achieve this feat by planting extraterrestrial seedlings on different planets throughout the cosmos that when activated, would consume planets and be assimilated with his consciousness.

Disguised as an individual from the home species of these planets which he had visited across the universe, Ego conceived multiple children as the mechanism to activate the seedlings around the cosmos required the energy and genes of two Celestial. To make this happen, he hired the Ravager Captain Yondu Udonta to monitor the offspring he produced on these different planets and then kidnap them, in exchange for a handsome reward of many Units. When his children failed to inherit his Celestial DNA, Ego murdered them and hid their skeletons in the depths 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, however, realized by this time that Ego had killed all of his prior children that he had delivered to him. Horrified and guilt-ridden, Yondu decided not to deliver the boy. Instead, to atone in a way for all of the prior children he let die, Yondu trained Peter Quill to be a Ravager and his protégé, becoming a surrogate father of sorts to him (albeit a cantankerous one). Yondu never revealed the truth about Ego to Peter so as not to frighten him, and always told him that he kept him as part of his crew because he needed a small boy who could sneak through tight places to steal things.

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." As Peter left, one of Yondu's crew lamented that they didn't just hand him over to his father, but Yondu bitterly remarked, "That guy's a jackass."

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 tour 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's 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 of 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 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 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 and be normal like everyone else. Peter accepts to be normal as the bomb goes off, much to Ego's horror. The bomb 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.

When Ego met with the females 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.

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 in which Ego shows Peter Quill how he procreated with many other species, one of the females was child-like, implying that Ego is willing to go extreme and highly unethical means to succeed in his expansion.

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.
 * Photokinesis: Ego essentially descibes his powers as "light"; it is currently unclear if other Celestials have this ability. 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: He is able to create massive light 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.
 * Light Beams: He fired a few blasts from his planet 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 Imbuing: He used his light 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 was able to fly through air at bullet-like speeds along with his son, seemingly by using the surrounding matter to propel himself.

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 is also the second main antagonist to have familiar 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. A few 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 for  movie.