Lylla Was in the MCU Before 'Guardians of the Galaxy 3'

While many great characters were introduced in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,’ none made as much of an impact as Lylla and her animal pals. However, the sentient otter actually made her first appearance in an earlier MCU film.

Director James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 stars Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel as Groot, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, and Will Poulter as Adam Warlock.

Many could argue that the most memorable characters were Rocket’s animal companions from when he was an experiment under the High Evolutionary. Lylla, Teefs, and Floor made an emotional impression on audiences worldwide.

However, some audience members may be surprised to learn that this isn’t actually the first time they’ve seen a reference to the sentient otter.

Lylla Was Introduced in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 1’

Related: James Gunn Pushed For “Terrible” Animal Scenes in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

James Gunn has often repeated how much he loves Rocket Raccoon. And if you’re going to include Rocket, you’ll have to include Lylla at some point. In the comics, Lady Lylla is a sapient otter from Halfworld who is the heiress of a toy company and is the soulmate of everyone’s favorite technological rodent.

Played wonderfully by Linda Cardellini, Gunn’s version of Lylla dramatically differs from her comic counterpart. Instead of being an heiress, she is another one of the High Evolutonary’s experiments and one of Rocket’s first friends. It’s clear that there is a massive emotional connection between the two mammals.

However, that wasn’t always the case since we see a reference to Lylla in the first Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

Related: PETA Pushes Back Against Criticism of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

In an interview with Gizmodo from 2017, director James Gunn revealed that he made a reference based on Rocket’s history in Marvel comics, but he may need to retcon it.

“In the first movie, there is the mugshot sequence where the characters go through, and they’re going through the mugshots and having their picture taken. And the Nova Corps has information about each of the characters coming up on their machinery. Those things are something that your average viewer doesn’t see at all. But there’s a lot of background I put into those things about who they’ve worked with, where they are from, what’s going on. And it’s one of those things that I’m thinking about changing.”

This refers to Rocket’s list of companions, which includes Groot and Lylla. It turns out this was the right decision because this new version of Lylla turned out to be the emotional core of Rocket’s entire character arc.

Which characters would you like to see translated from the Marvel comics? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!