The High Evolutionary is a supporting antagonist of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing as the main antagonist of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
He is a space-faring alien cyborg scientist and the founder of Orgocorp, who aimed to conduct illegal experimentation upon lower life forms, such as animals and children, into anthropomorphic humanoids to create what he deems the perfect society. He is known for creating various species and creatures across the galaxy, such as the Sovereign, the Xeronians, and the Humanimals.
Amongst his several creations, however, his greatest would be Subject 89P13, better known as Rocket Raccoon; a raccoon from Earth that was genetically modified and given advanced intelligence, but at the cost of being subjected to the High Evolutionary's constant torture and abuse. When Rocket managed to escape from his captor, the High Evolutionary sought out to reclaim his creation, inevitably putting him in conflict with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the process. thus being Rocket Raccoon's arch-nemesis.
He is portrayed by Chukwudi Iwuji.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3[]
Much of the High Evolutionary's past is unknown other than the fact that he has been active for over 300 years and does not originate from Earth. Regardless, he visited the planet sometime in the past, around the 1980s, and became fascinated by its culture. However, he viewed humanity's flaws as an impediment to their potential to be "the perfect society".
Therefore, he decided to create his own perfect race, establishing a planet called Counter-Earth to serve as his base and kidnapping several animals from Earth and mechanically modifying them to develop this race, with some of the early members including the otter Lylla, the walrus Teefs, the rabbit Floor and likely some of his other cyborg subordinates like the War Pig, Behemoth and Hellspawn. He also founded Orgocorp to fund his illegal experiments and created the Sovereign race as an "aesthetic experiment" and is implied to have created the Abilisks.
Eventually, the High Evolutionary surgically modified a baby raccoon he had captured into the intelligent cyborg that would later name himself Rocket. Around this time, he would also start transitioning his progress from cybernetically enhanced animals to using chemicals to genetically evolve them into humanoids named "Humanimals" within a matter of seconds. But all the experiments had too much anger and aggression to be released. So Rocket would help him crack the code to grant these humanoids intelligence, to which he would repay him by deciding to keep him as the "brains" of his operation while ordering Pad 89, Rocket's prison and the home of Lylla, Teefs and Floor, to be incinerated. After he cracked the code and the ideal species, the High Evolutionary revealed his true nature to Rocket, stating that he was now the only use he had for him was his brain. So he and the rest of 89’s would be killed tomorrow.
Not wanting his friends to die, Rocket crafted an impromptu key card to unlock their cages and free them. However, the High Evolutionary expected this to happen; he arrived and shot Lylla dead before having his soldiers do the same to Teefs and Floor. Enraged by this sudden turn of events, Rocket attacks the High Evolutionary by mauling his face to an irreparable degree as he screams in pain. Believing he’s dead Rocket escapes from Counter-Earth, after which he would eventually become a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
In the meantime, the High Evolutionary would mask his injuries with a prosthetic face and continue his experiments, filling Counter-Earth with the Humanimals as they formed a society not dissimilar to that of Earth's. However, the Humanimals still displayed a lot of the flaws that were present in humans, prompting him to create and develop a new species named the Star Children in secret as he plotted Counter-Earth's destruction.
Years following Rocket's escape, he and the Guardians have now stationed their headquarters in the Celestial skull outpost of Knowhere. Still searching to acquire Rocket, the High Evolutionary tasks the Sovereign high priestess Ayesha to capture him by sending her son Adam Warlock to kidnap him and bring him back to Counter-Earth. During their battle, Adam blasts and severely wounds Rocket before retreating from the other Guardians when suffering his own injuries. The High Evolutionary delivers an ultimatum to Ayesha, threatening the extinction of the Sovereign.
Unable to heal Rocket due to a kill switch surgically attached to his heart, the Guardians infiltrate the Orgoscope, Orgocorp's biological headquarters, in search of a passkey that would disable the switch and ensure his survival, reluctantly enlisting the help of a timeline-displaced variant of one of their late members, Gamora to help them. After retrieving the core containing the key, however, they discover that the key was deleted and recorded hours prior by Theel at the implant in his head, one of the High Evolutionary's top scientists, who is currently stationed on Counter-Earth.
Upon arriving at Counter-Earth, the Guardians' leader Star-Lord and his comrade Groot enter the High Evolutionary's base and come face to face with him as he explains his past with Earth, Rocket, and his machinations of perfecting the universe. He then sets his laboratory, in reality, a massive spaceship, to launch into space in search of a planet for his "new colony", while razing all of Counter-Earth (with Ayesha on it), causing the planet's entire population to be rendered extinct in the process. While Star-Lord and Groot manage to extract the passkey from Theel's head, escape the cataclysm alongside Gamora and successfully revive Rocket, the Guardians' other members, Nebula, Drax and Mantis, secretly board the laboratory, where they would come across the hundreds of Star Children trapped in cages before the High Evolutionary finds and imprisons all three.
As the spaceship continues its trek, Star-Lord contacts his comrade Kraglin Obfonteri to transport the entirety of Knowhere to the ship's location and fire at it, setting off its gradual destruction before he, Groot, Gamora and Rocket board the ship and regroup with the others, who escape with a trio of Abilisks thanks to Mantis turning them to their side with her hypnotism abilities.
The team fight off the High Evolutionary's soldiers and evacuate the Star Children onto Knowhere, Rocket manages to find the location of all the animals captured by him, including his original family of raccoons. However, the High Evolutionary quickly finds him and violently attacks him, ranting that he's nothing but a failed experiment, only to be quickly overpowered by Rocket and the other Guardians, as they violently beat him up back and ending it with Gamora stabbing him in the side of his chest before peeling off his mask to reveal his mutilated face. Instead of killing him straight away out of vengeance, Rocket decides to leave him since he is going to die anyway from both his injuries and the destruction of his ship before the others quickly left, but not before rescuing all the trapped animals and children before the ship goes down. All of the High Evolutionary's test subjects are subsequently taken in by Knowhere's population and allowed to reside there under the supervision of Nebula and Drax after the Guardians of the Galaxy rearrange their members, finally giving all of the Evolutionary's "lab rats" the home and happiness they deserved.
It was revealed in a deleted scene, that the High Evolutionary was actually spared from his ship's explosion due to Drax ending up rescuing him as his ship went down and carrying him all the way out of his ship to Knowhere, before throwing him away into the space station's prison, ironically placing him in the same deplorable living conditions he forced his test subjects to endure.