Peter Quill is headed back into the fight. A scooper says Chris Pratt will reprise his role in Avengers: Secret Wars, after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ended with Quill promising to return.
Leaked concept art allegedly shows Quill alongside the Young Avengers and White Vision, a pairing that has already pushed fans to imagine Star-Lord in a mentor role for Kate Bishop, Ms. Marvel and Wiccan. That would fit the way the character has been framed since his Earth hiatus after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, with many viewers wondering where he had gone and what Marvel had planned for him next.
MyTimeToShineHello is the source behind the casting claim, but the larger takeaway is the one Marvel has been hinting at for a while: Secret Wars could be more than another team-up movie. It could be the soft reboot point for the entire MCU, and Quill may be one of the characters used to bridge the old guard to whatever comes after.
That is why this rumor has landed with so much force. If the leak is real, Avengers: Secret Wars would not just bring Peter Quill back for a cameo. It would place him in the middle of a new generation of heroes, and it could make this the final ride for the Peter Quill audiences know, or the start of a different era for the character on the New Earth. The answer, for now, is that Quill is not being left behind. He is being brought back for whatever Marvel thinks comes next.