Gamora lives in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 thanks to Avengers logic

As great scholars have asked, “Where is Gamora?” “Who is Gamora?” and “Why is Gamora?” And with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3The rockets have been launched towards the theaters. Vol. 2 six years back in the rearview mirror, you may well be asking yourself, “How is Gamora alive in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Didn’t she die in Avengers: Infinity War?”

Yes, she did. And then some other things happened, and now she’s back. It’s sort of. It’s complicated. Let’s refresh.

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Marvel Cinematic Universe movies up through Thor: Love and Thunder, but not for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.]

Gamora is a character in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.

If you’re a die-hard Marvel fan, some of this is foundational, but let’s go over a few basic cornerstones of Gamora lore (Ga-lore-a).

Introduced in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy and played by Zoe Saldaña, Gamora is an assassin with the sobriquet “the deadliest woman in the galaxy.” When Gamora was young, the intergalactic warlord Thanos conquered her planet, killed 50% of its population, adopted her as his own daughter, and brought her into a life of space murder. Gamora was adopted by Thanos as his daughter when she was a young girl. He then turned her into ruthless space murderer. Guardians of the GalaxyShe was running from her father after she defected from his forces. She joined forces with the Guardians and prevented Ronan, the Kree’s general from gaining the Power Stone. Later she convinced her sister Nebula also to defy Thanos.

How long has Gamora been in the MCU?

Image: Marvel Studios

Technically, Gamora has died. The events that took place during Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos abducted her and took her to the planet of Vormir, home of the hidden Soul Stone, which demanded the sacrifice of a loved one in order to wield it — and apparently, the possessive affection of an abusive father explicitly willing to kill his own daughter to gain power counts as love.

He threw Gamora to her death, and not even the Infinity Stones can turn back a Soul Stone sacrifice, so she did not return to life with the rest of the people who had been killed by Thanos’ snap.

What is Gamora?

The real-world answer is that Zoe Saldaña is under contract to star as Gamora; she’s a main character of the Guardians of the Galaxy subfranchise; and passing up an opportunity for Saldaña to play Gamora is leaving star power, money, and negotiating power on the table.

In-universe answers involve the way that is not intuitive. Avengers: EndgameBuilt the rules of Time Travel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Gamora is alive in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3)?

Image: Marvel Studios

As one of the interlocking parts of the Avengers’ attempt to gather a full set of Infinity Stones from the past, Nebula and War Machine traveled back in time to intercept the Power Stone before the Guardians, Kree, or Thanos obtained it.

Now, logistically, the way all this Gamora stuff works is a lot more like visiting an alternate universe than traveling back on one’s own timeline — as Bruce Banner explains in Endgame, it’s nothing like Back to the Future rules. Thanos was aware of an alternate timeline where the Avengers were able to travel back to the past to steal the Power Stone. He then snapped the half the world dead.

So, after kidnapping the Main Timeline Nebula, Alternate Thanos of the parallel universe stole the Avengers’ time travel technology and followed them back to their own “present” (i.e., to their own universe) to steal the Infinity Stones back. His plan — given evidence that snapping half of all life had inspired so much resistance — was to do an even worse snap, destroying all life in the universe so he could remake it as he saw fit. His loyal daughters Alternate Gamora & Alternate Nebula were also with him.

During the final battle of the Avengers against Alternate Thanos’ Chitauri armies (which, let’s never forget, took place in upstate New York’s Hudson Valley), Main Timeline Nebula killed her alternate self and convinced Alternate Gamora to fight for the good guys. Alternate Gamora, like Main Gamora, was on the verge of defecting to Alternate Thanos by herself.

So, let’s conclude. Infinity War, when Iron Man sacrificed himself to snap away all of “Thanos’ forces,” Alternate Gamora remained in the main MCU timeline. Her Guardians of the Galaxy friends were disappointed that her alternate Gamora never had met them or shared in their adventures. She also never fell in love with Star Lord. She refused to join the group, and instead went on her own journey in the galaxy. We saw this from their first appearance. Thor: Love & Thunder, it has kind of left a hole in the group, and certainly a hole in Peter’s heart.

While we can’t say what that means for Alternate Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, we know she’s in it. And it’s hard to imagine a universe, alternate or otherwise, where the way she feels about a group of weirdos she’s never met who insist they miss her very much isn’t a big part of the movie.