Every Character That Died in the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Trilogy

The Guardians of the Galaxy team has had a really good path since they joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2014. They joined the franchise as B, or maybe even C-list superheroes, and thanks to James Gunn, they became the second most popular MCU team, after the Avengers, of course.

All three Guardians of the Galaxy movies received positive reviews, and all three of them were so much fun. Although the movies are fun, James Gunn showed with this trilogy that he knows how to combine good fun with a good amount of emotions we’ve all felt during certain scenes. In this article, we’ll revisit the entire Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and list all the characters who died.

Of course, a lot more characters died in this trilogy than we’re going to list, but we’ll stick to characters for which we know names. We can’t count how many people died when Ronan attacked Kyln or Xandar, and we don’t even dare to imagine how many of his children Ego killed before he found Peter in Vol. 2. There are also scenes like the Ravagers mutiny and Yondu and Rocket’s escape in which also dozens of minor characters were killed.

This article also contains characters that died in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3! So, spoiler alert is on. You’ve been warned.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Meredith Quill

The original Guardians of the Galaxy movie with an opening scene set back in 1988 when Peter Quill, still a young boy, was standing next to his mother, Meredith Quill, who was on a deathbed. Meredith gave her son the last gift and told him his father would eventually return for him. After that, Meredith passed away. After watching Vol. 2, this opening scene was even harder to watch because we realize that Meredith never found out the father of her child was actually a homicidal maniac who also killed her with a tumor he put in her head.

Carina

Carina was a slave of Taneleer Tivan, also known as the Collector, in Knowhere when Guardians came to him to sell the Orb. Carina was the Collector’s servant, and once everyone realized that the Orb actually contained the Power Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones, Carina wanted to use it to escape from the Collector, but as soon as she touched it, the Stone killed her and caused an explosion, after which Guardians realized that selling an Infinity Stone to the Collector isn’t an option.

Korath the Pursuer

Korath would probably be one of those forgettable main villain’s henchmen if his character weren’t gifted with the charisma of Djimon Hounsou. Hounsou reprised the role in the Captain Marvel movie, which takes place 19 years before the events of Guardians of the Galaxy. The utterer of one of the most known “Who?” lines was killed by Drax the Destroyer on the Dark Aster during the movie’s third act.

Garthan Saal

Peter Serafinowicz’s Garthan Saal was one of the supporting characters we wouldn’t care much about if he wasn’t killed in such a way. Saal was a high-ranked member of the Nova Corps who allied with Guardians to protect Xandar from Ronan’s Dark Aster. He and the other Nova pilots formed a blockade to prevent Dark Aster’s landing on Xandar, and Ronan managed to destroy the blockade, and Saal died heroically with several more Nova pilots.

Adult Groot

When Dark Aster has crushed on Xandar, there’s a question if Guardians would survive the crash if it weren’t for Groot’s heroic deed. When Ronan’s Warship started falling to the ground, Groot formed a sphere made out of his branches which helped the Guardians to survive the fall, but at the cost of Groot’s life. Groot was reborn only three scenes later, but that “We Are Groot” scene was one of the most beautiful, touching, and emotional scenes the MCU has ever offered us.

Ronan the Accuser

Lee Pace’s Ronan the Accuser was depicted as a ruthless warlord of the Kree Empire. His ultimate goal was to destroy the entire Xandar, and he formed an agreement with Thanos; if Ronan found the Orb for Thanos, Thanos would destroy Xandar. Ronan didn’t know that the Orb contained an Infinity Stone, and upon learning that, he betrayed Thanos and attacked Xandar by himself. On Xandar, he was ultimately killed by Guardians of the Galaxy, who used that same Infinity Stone to kill him.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

Taserface

Following Taserface’s mutiny against Yondu and the Ravagers loyal to him (they were all killed), Yondu and Rocket managed to plan an escape with the help of Groot and Kraglin. Yondu used his flying arrow to kill all of the mutineers. The only one that didn’t die directly by Youndu’s arrow was Taserface himself, who died when Youndu used his arrow to blow up the ship. Shortly before his death, Taserface sent Yound’s coordinates to the Sovereign, and he died with a Sovereign woman laughing in his face because of his name. Well, he may be a villain no one cares about, but it surely sucks to die that way.

Ego

Despite all of its good sides, many fans agree that Vol. 2 is inferior to the original movie. However, between Ronan and Ego, we’d pick Ego any day, particularly because of the personal connection Star-Lord had with this villain. And when you add an acting veteran like Kurt Russell to the mix, you get a winning combination. Ego the Living Planet served as the main antagonist of the sequel, and his motives were to use his son’s connection to the light of his planet to eradicate the universe. Thankfully, Guardians managed to foil his plans by blowing up his core, which took away Star-Lord’s celestial powers but also saved the entire galaxy. Again.

Yondu

We can’t write this paragraph without feeling the same sadness we felt when we watched Vol. 2 for the first time. Although he was introduced as a minor antagonist in the original movie, the sequel proved that James Gunn really had much bigger plans for Michael Rooker’s Yondu in the sequel. Following Ego’s destruction, Yondu heroically saved Peter Quill from the planet, admitting that he always felt like a true father to him. The scene of Yondu’s death is still one of the most emotional scenes we have ever seen in the MCU, and it once again proves how good James Gunn is at mixing good entertainment and a dosage of emotions in his movies.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Lylla, Teefs, and Floor

Just like Rocket, Lylla, Teefs, and Floor were creatures genetically enhanced by the High Evolutionary. They befriended Rocket when they were caged at the High Evolutionary’s lab. They all believed that they would be sent to High Evolutionary’s perfect society. But after finding out that the High Evolutionary plans to kill them since he doesn’t find them perfect enough, Rocket plans to escape with his friends. Unfortunately, the High Evolutionary caught them in the middle of the escape, and in the end, only Rocket managed to escape alive and well.

Ayesha

Elizabeth Debicki debuted as the High Priestess Ayesha in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. She hired Guardians to protect the batteries of the Sovereign. After Guardians successfully completed their task, Ayesha gave them Nebula, who the Sovereign arrested before the events of Vol. 2. The Guardians found themselves on Ayesha’s bad side when Rocket stole some of the Sovereign batteries. Ayesha eventually created Adam Warlock to destroy the Guardians in Vol. 3, but she died in an explosion after the High Evolutionary decided to blow up the entire Counter-Earth so that he could start his work of perfecting a society again.

The High Evolutionary

One thing all Guardians of the Galaxy movies have in common is that the main villain always dies at the end. It happened with Ronan, Ego, and now with Chukwudi Iwuji’s Herbert Edgar Wyndham, also known as the High Evolutionary. He was depicted as the villain who has a history with Rocket Raccoon. The High Evolutionary was obsessed with finding Rocket again, eventually leading to his entire ship’s destruction and his own death. After Rocket and the rest of the Guardians defeat him, Rocket has a chance to finish him off, but he leaves him to share his fate with his destroying spaceship.

In the end, Volume 3 didn’t have as many character deaths as expected

Ever since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was in early development, James Gunn teased that we can expect a lot of emotions in this movie and that we can expect at least one death of a major character.

Although we can’t deny the movie’s emotional aspect, and almost every team member was in mortal danger several times during the movie, all the Guardians lived to see the movie’s end.

Some members, including Peter Quill, left the team and went their separate ways. Star-Lord named Rocket a new Captain and the leader of the new Guardians team before he returned to Earth to find his grandfather.

Written and directed by James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 drops in theaters this week!