Guardians of the Galaxy Film Speculation: The Collector

With Benicio Del Toro being cast as The Collector in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film, the internet let out a resounding "huh? who?" Even die-hard fans of the Guardians of the Galaxy didn't know much about the character, due to his lack of recent appearances in Marvel comics. Here at Guard the Galaxy!, we'd like to give you a little bit of key information about The Collector and speculate what kind of role he will be playing in the Guardians film, in a new series of posts we like to call Guardians of the Galaxy Film Speculation! On today's agenda: The Collector. More after the jump!


The Collector

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History in Comics:

The Collector's real name is Taneleer Tiven and he is a member of the "Elders of the Universe," a group of cosmic beings who are the last of each of their kind. After losing his wife, The Collector took up the hobby of, you guessed it, "collecting" rare artifacts and beings with unique powers. On many occasions, he has tried to capture members of The Avengers, but has ultimately been unsuccessful. He has also been in possession of one of the six "Infinity Gems," each of them harnessing unique powers. Who took it from him? Thanos (that's who). The Collector believes that his own motives are pure and that he is not evil, when in fact he is probably just a little on the crazy side.

Possible Role in Film(s):

The cool thing about the Guardians of The Galaxy is that each character is unique. Rocket Raccoon is the last of his kind. Gamora is "the most dangerous woman in the galaxy." According to his latest origin, Star-Lord is half-human/half-alien royalty. I can easily see The Collector becoming infatuated with collecting all of the Guardians, due to the "uniqueness" of each one. He could also be in a mutual beneficial alliance with Thanos. Maybe Thanos wants to capture Gamora, while The Collector is trying to get his hands on Rocket Raccoon. You can't hate the guy though. He just loves collecting things, which brings me to my next theory...

What if The Collector is not collecting living beings at all? What if he is trying to collect all of the Infinity Gems? In the comics, both Drax and Gamora have been in possession of Infinity Gems (read Warlock and the Infinity Watch). Maybe The Collector's main goal is to obtain all of the gems.

Lastly, one of the first things we learned about Benicio Del Toro's role in Guardians of the Galaxy was that he signed on for multiple films. This could be nothing, of course. Even the kid from Iron Man 3 signed on for multiple films. However, with The Collector's history of facing off with The Avengers, I can only guess that he will play some sort of role in The Avengers 2. Many people have brought up the idea of Thanos defeating the Guardians of the Galaxy in their film, which will make him more menacing in Avengers 2. What if The Collector captures the Guardians at the end of their film, then he and Thanos head towards Earth? Wouldn't that be an awesome cliffhanger?

What sort of role do you think The Collector will play in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film? Drop a comment below with your ideas!