Does Mantis Die in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’?

Before the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, impressions were left that one of the Guardians team members would die. The most likely candidate was Drax due to Bautista’s announcement that he was done with the role. However, the movie managed to surprise us all. Even though Mantis is a secondary character in the franchise, she had a pretty interesting back story, but it seems her journey with the Guardians of the Galaxy is over. Let’s see whether Mantis dies in Guardians of the Galaxy 3. 

Mantis doesn’t die in Guardians of the Galaxy 3. However, she does leave the team on the premise that she wants to go by her own rules for the time being. All her life, Mantis followed other people’s orders, and now she finally feels ready to take control of her own life. Following the battle with High Evolutionary, she departed the team with three abilisks she managed to control via her powers. 

Now that we’ve revealed that Mantis lives to see the team being disbanded, it’s time to explore her story in a bit more detail. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading! 

Mantis rose from a potential villain to a hero 

The first time we met Mantis was during the second GotG movie. She was the servant of Quill’s father, a Celestial called Ego. When we met Mantis, she was shy and completely unadjusted for company and civilization in general since everything she has known her whole life was Ego.

Mantis took part in Ego’s plot to find children suitable for his “Expansion” plan. He needed to track down and test his numerous biological children to see whether some of them had his Celestial DNA and thus his powers that he could use to fuel his Expansion. 

When Guardians arrived on Ego’s planet, Mantis was silent about this plan, although she knew what would transpire. Even though she never took part directly in the culling of the children, she was guilt-ridden, and after bonding with Drax and the Guardians in general, she decided to spill the beans about it all. 

Later, we find out that Mantis is Ego’s biological daughter and thus half-sister of Star-Lord. She was taken in her larva stage by Ego, and despite not manifesting Celestial powers, Ego kept her around due to her powerful empath powers, which was just about the only thing that was able to calm his erratic behavior and put him to sleep while he searched for Peter Quill. 

Mantis played a huge role in Peter’s decision to leave the team 

GotG Vol. 3 starts with Adam Warlock attacking Knowhere to get his hand on Rocket Raccoon. High Evolutionary hired him because he wanted to get ahold of Rocket’s brain by any means necessary. After all, Rocket was the only experiment that turned out actually intelligent. 

Adam Warlock quickly dealt with the team and injured Rocket Raccoon severely. Mantis was one of the team members that attempted to deal with Warlock, but he broke her arm. After Rocket’s medical condition turns out to be worse than they thought, she agrees to infiltrate Orgosphere with the rest of the team members (and Gamora) to find the password for the kill switch and save his life. 

As Star-Lord’s sister, Mantis likewise noticed how affected Quill was by the current state of his relationship with Gamora, or lack of, to be more precise. She also has a feeling that Quill won’t take her seriously since rarely anyone does, so she sends Drax to tell Quill that he needs to “learn to swim” and move on from Gamora. She told him that there was a good chance that his grandfather would be alive back on Earth and that he should perhaps return there.

At the Orgosphere, Mantis played a key role in the operation since she was the one that made the security guard fall in love with Drax hopelessly so they could infiltrate the ship deeper. She was likewise responsible for the fact that their spacesuits got destroyed. 

Mantis almost brought the whole operation in danger along with Drax 

After the Guardians failed in retrieving the kill switch code from the Orgosphere, they knew they had to get close to High Evolutionary by visiting his greatest project, Counter-Earth. While there, Star-Lord knew he was going into a trap, so he decided to go to High Evolutionary alone. Leaving Mantis and Drax near Bowie to make sure that no one comes even close to Rocket Raccoon, who was, at that time, on the ship in a comatose state. 

Drax then decided to steal the motorbike from a random passenger and drove straight to High Evolutionary’s ship, where angry Nebula met them. Nebula was aware that Drax once again refused to follow orders, and she accused him of being stupid and endangering the whole mission. After Mantis started defending Drax, Nebula turned on her as well, but Mantis stood her ground and told her that she loved Drax just the way he was.

She also erased his memories of that conversation so Nebula’s words won’t hurt him. After Nebula, Drax, and Mantis managed to communicate to the High Evolutionary’s children experiments that the ship was about to be attacked, they landed themselves in extraordinary danger. 

High Evolutionary knocked Mantis out along with Nebula and Drax, and imprisoned them with three Abilisk. Mantis saved the day because, due to her powers, she managed to calm down the beasts and even subdue them. 

Riding the abilisks, Mantis took part in rescuing the children and other experiments from High Evolutionary’s ship, which was in the process of being destroyed. 

Mantis left the team, and she will likely never come back 

After rescuing everyone of importance from the ship and dealing with High Evolutionary, Mantis announced to the team that she was leaving to travel the universe. She was also taking the abilisks with her. She explained that for most of her life, she was just following orders. At first, it was Ego who gave her orders and micro-managed her, and later when she joined Guardians, she followed orders again. 

Now it’s time for Mantis to depart on the journey of self-discovery. Nebula’s comments during the movie played a huge role in her decision, most likely because the two often argued due to their clashing personalities. 

Due to being a secondary character, Mantis will likely never return to the team, but we might see her in future MCU movies, at least in the flashbacks.