Blu-Ray releases for movies are great because they often give us a look at a film in its earliest stages. Such is the case with this concept art of Ego from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It gives us an early look at Kurt Russell's character of Ego, the Living Planet. In the concept art, Ego is standing in front of his space craft, in a moment that's likely designed to be the first time we see him in the film. Check it out.
The most interesting thing about the image may be that the file, provided to CinemaBlend by Disney, actually labels the image as J'son rather than Ego. In the Marvel Comics J'son of Spartax is the name of Peter Quill's father. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 changed this piece of history to Ego. It's unclear whether this art was designed under the impression that it was actually going to be the look for J'son, or if that name was simply used to hide the characters true identity on the off chance that the art leaked ahead of the reveal.
Physically speaking this concept art was pretty much translated to the final look for Kurt Russell's character. He's got a similar cape and the same strap across the chest. Even the clothes pretty closely match what we saw in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The only real change is that the outfit looks to be much darker overall, though the image as a whole is also darker. Considering what a brightly lit place Ego's home is, the lighter look for the character certainly makes sense. Everything there needs to look warm and inviting, including Ego himself. There's also a pair of goggles in the image which actually look pretty cool.
Check out the final look for Ego in the image below for comparison.
Quite often when we get a look at concept art we see significant differentiation between the art and the final design. At the very least, there are usually elements that get changed. In this case, most of what we see here remained intact to the final costume design. It's true that we don't know exactly where in the process this image came along. This could be the last design for the character that was the one that was finally given the green light.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is available digitally on HD, 4K Ultra HD and Disney Movies Anywhere right now, and physically on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD on August 22.
