At Motor City Comic Con 2023, I was determined to have answered a single burning question about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Since Kraglin was gifted Yondu’s arrow in 2014, why did it take him 11 years or so to learn how to use it? Or could it be that Kraglin was Blipped and missed out on training for some of those years? Kraglin himself, Sean Gunn was there at the con, so I decided to ask him.
What happened to Kraglin?
According to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s timeline, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 took place four months after the original while Vol. 3 takes place in 2025/2026. We can see Kraglin wearing Yondu’s fin on the battlefield in a deleted scene from Avengers: Endgame, which led me to believe he had mastered the arrow. But then I was pretty surprised to find him struggling with it at the start of Vol. 3.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to conduct a formal interview with Sean Gunn about this. Instead I waited in line for his autograph, and asked him about it while he signed a photo.
He immediately said “Well, no…” when I mentioned Kraglin receiving the arrow in 2014. But then the rest of his response surprised me: “Well, he was Blipped for five of those years […] Was Guardians 2 set in 2014?” I pointed out that Vol 2. was indeed set in 2014, but I didn’t realize Kraglin had been Blipped.
And it seems like nobody else has either! In 2018, James Gunn stated that Kraglin had survived Thanos’s Snap (see Inverse article). While that’s an interesting thought, I don’t consider this to be a plot hole. Several presumed-dead characters have turned out to be alive during the five-year Blip, such as Scott Lang and Sharon Carter.
In 2018, I think directors and writers commented on their characters surviving or dying because it was fun to speculate on. But when it comes time to write the next part of their stories, it might make more sense for the character to have survived when they were previously confirmed to have died or vice versa.
In any case, clearly something changed with Kraglin. I’m inclined to believe the actor, as this is the latest information, and his brother is the writer/director of the Guardians films. No one would know more about Kraglin than Sean Gunn!
Kraglin’s arrow training
Okay, so Kraglin was virtually dead for five years. That means he trained with the arrow for six years before the events of Vol. 3. In my opinion, that’s a more acceptable time frame to learn its tricks, and Sean Gunn agreed: “It’s a magic arrow you control with your thoughts, I’ll buy that it takes a while to master it.”
But now I have another question: is Yondu’s arrow magic?! I always assumed it was some kind of alien technology. Yondu’s advice to fly the arrow with your heart sounds a lot like the Ancient One’s teachings in Doctor Strange when she points out magic isn’t about using your hands. And the bright red streaks that follow the arrow do look similar to the sparking orange lines that make up sorcerers’ portals as seen in the image below.
That’s a question I’ll have to ask Michael Rooker next time I’m at a convention with him. As for Kraglin, Gunn ended our conversation with “At least I was able to knock five years off of that!”
I’m glad to hear it didn’t take Kraglin over 10 years to master Yondu’s arrow, but now that he has, I can’t wait to see some awesome action scenes with it in the future!
What do you think about Sean Gunn’s answer?
Did you already guess that Kraglin was Blipped during those five years? Let us know what you think of Sean Gunn’s answer on Twitter @mycosmiccircus or The Cosmic Circus Discord!
Find out more about Motor City Comic Con here and be on the look out for more of my on location reporting from the con later this week. In the meantime, check out our podcast review of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 through the link below!
Cosmic Circle Ep. 29: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Discussion (Spoilers!)
