How Is Gamora Alive in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy 3?

This article contains MCU spoilers

This year, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 brings our favorite gang of space A-holes back together for one last big screen adventure, and along with Peter Quill, Rocket, Groot, Drax, Mantis, and Nebula, Zoe Saldana’s Gamora will be making an appearance in the upcoming James Gunn trilogy-capper.

Gamora has the most complex Marvel story of all the Guardians, and for anyone who has forgotten how her character came to be in the mix after she died during Avengers: Infinity War five years ago, we’re here to help fill in some gaps!

Gamora’s MCU Journey

Gamora was introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 as a deadly assassin working for the villainous Thanos, who had adopted her as his daughter after killing half her race. Thanos trained her to be the fiercest woman in the galaxy, but she longed to get away from her father, and decided to betray him when she was sent on a quest to retrieve an artifact called The Orb, which was revealed to house the Power Stone, an Infinity Stone that could make anyone who controlled it very hard to beat. At that time, Kree overlord Ronan the Accuser was in league with Thanos, and also sought to betray him when he found out The Orb contained the Power Stone.

In her quest to grab The Orb, Gamora got mixed up with several other miscreants who were also keen to have it in their possession, including Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Rocket, and Groot. The gang were sent to prison after causing a ruckus on the planet Zandar, and it’s there they met Drax, a former Kylosian criminal who had declared vengeance on Ronan for killing his family.

Gamora eventually teamed up with Peter, Rocket, Groot, and Drax to snatch The Orb from Ronan and save Zandar from his blitzkrieg attempt on the planet. As a force for good, the gang then became known as the Guardians of the Galaxy.

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gamora took custody of her adopted sister Nebula (Karen Gillen), who had been tortured by Thanos. Nebula would later join the Guardians, though it took a lot of convincing to get her on their side. In the meantime, Quill and Gamora began a romantic relationship.

How Did Gamora Die?

Years later, the Guardians intercepted a distress call sent by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the remaining denizens of Asgard during Avengers: Infinity War. Thor told the Guardians that Thanos was trying to acquire all the Infinity Stones. Gamora realized that Thanos planned to wipe out half the galaxy using the stones, so the Guardians travelled to Knowhere to retrieve one of them and stop his plan coming to fruition.

Unfortunately, Thanos had set a trap on Knowhere, and he kidnapped Gamora and took her to Vormir, a remote barren planet at the center of Celestial existence within the universe, where he knew he could come into possession of the Soul Stone. Gamora had been hiding this information from him for quite a while.

For Thanos to get the Soul Stone, he had to sacrifice someone he loved. He apparently did love his adopted daughter, as he threw her off a cliff on Vormir and the planet gave him the Soul Stone in exchange. It was a sacrifice that cannot be “undone” in the future, according to MCU canon, and Gamora’s soul will remain rapped inside the Soulworld for all eternity.

How Is Gamora Alive in Guardians of the Galaxy 3?

Here comes the tricky part, as the Gamora that is now alive in the MCU is not the Gamora we got to know in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and 2 – the one who died in Avengers: Infinity War.

During the events of Avengers: Endgame, a younger version of Thanos discovered that the Avengers had figured out how to time travel. He knew that they had acquired the Infinity Stones, and were about to bring back the half of existence that Thanos had eradicated at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.

In an effort to stop them, Yung Thanos – who at this point in the timeline was accompanied by more loyal versions of his daughters Gamora and Nebula – captured Present Day Nebula and used Past Nebula to infiltrate the Avengers, mounting an attack on Avengers Compound. However, Present Day Nebula was able to convince Past Gamora that she was screwed if she stayed with Thanos, and Past Gamora helped the Avengers defeat Thanos as a result of switching sides once again.

Past Gamora, now living in the present without anyone else from her point in the timeline, does not know the Guardians of the Galaxy aside from Nebula. She has had only a fleeting moment on screen with Peter Quill, and it’s fair to say this version of Gamora did not yet feel the same attraction to him as the old one did. In fact, when he tried to embrace her, she responded by kicking him in the balls, twice (the first time she missed).

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, this past version of Gamora continues to exist, but her whereabouts leading up to the final part of the trilogy are still mysterious. It has been teased that she is now the leader of the Ravagers, an interstellar criminal syndicate who formerly counted Quill as one of their members.