Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock Getting Own Series?
Will Poulter could already have a Disney+ series greenlit for Adam Warlock!
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After a long wait, Adam Warlock is finally on his way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Earlier this week news came that Will Poulter (The Maze Runner) had been cast as the gold-skinned hero for the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. But according to a new report, we could be seeing even more of the cosmic figure in his own Disney+ series.
The unconfirmed report comes from Geekosity, who says an unnamed Marvel insider told the site that we’d see the series some time after the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The unnamed source also reportedly implied the series option was on the table because “he’s not big enough to carry a theatrical movie.” It isn’t clear if by “he” the source is referring to Will Poulter or the character of Adam Warlock, but judging the decisions Marvel Studios has made in the past, it seems likely the source is talking about the actor. After all, your average audience member had no idea who Ant-Man, Captain Marvel, or the Guardians of the Galaxy were before their films killed at the box office.
If an Adam Warlock series is on the way, then there’s certainly enough source material for the creators to pull from and adapt for Will Poulter. Warlock is one of the more interesting and enigmatic characters in Marvel Comics. He first shows up in 1967’s Fantastic Four #66 though at the time he is only referred to by the name “Him.” He wouldn’t be called Adam Warlock until 1972’s Marvel Premiere #1, when writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane reinvented him as a kind of space messiah.
Warlock’s story eventually becomes tied to that that of the space warlord Thanos, and the pair have been vicious frenemies for decades. The character Will Poulter will inhabit is directly responsible for Thanos’ death (he got better) in 1977’s Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2 as well as the Mad Titan’s defeat in the 1991 miniseries Infinity Gauntlet. But they would be allies in other instances, such as in the 1992 miniseries Infinity War and 2002’s Infinity Abyss.
To many hardcore Marvel Comics fans, Will Poulter’s casting no doubt seems like a case of “too little, too late.” Warlock is part of the team line-up of the 2008 Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning written series that inspired the Guardians of the Galaxy films. More crucially, in Infinity Gauntlet — from which 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War takes much of its inspiration — it’s Adam Warlock who organizes the Earth’s heroes to confront Thanos. In fact when Thanos is defeated, it’s Warlock who assumes ownership of the Infinity Gauntlet and its six Infinity Gems (they’re referred to as gems instead of stones in the source material). The fact that the story was already told on the big screen without Warlock present, from a certain point of view, would be like if Peter Jackson made the Lord of the Rings films without Gandalf.
It’s likely to be some time before we learn if this new report is accurate. Will Poulter will appears as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 which is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5, 2023. If Geekosity’s report proves true, Poulter’s series wouldn’t premiere until after that.
