Which Celestial's head is "Knowhere"?

Question

It was mentioned in the movie Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 1 as well as in this article and confirmed here, that:

Knowhere — the mining colony located on the edge of the universe in the decapitated head of a long-dead Celestial being
^{[Links added by me]}

Which Celestial Being did the head belong to? (if known).

I have also checked the Wikipedia page for Knowhere, but the closest thing to its origins was this line from the creators (Dan Abbnett and Andy Lanning):

Honestly, they just came to us. The severed Celestial head was, I think, something that popped out of Andy's mind one day. Similarly, one morning, I said "what about a talking Russian dog?" We run with these things and develop them together. It's hard to pin down where exactly they originate.

Answer 1

The pedigree of the Celestials overall is very rare. Few have been named and even fewer have been named and killed in the Marvel Universe. No known Celestial has been identified as the head used in Knowhere.

• However, there were once billions of Celestials in the universe and due to a conflict with another early developing race called the Aspirants and the release of a super-weapon called the Godkiller, millions of Celestials were destroyed. It is likely the origin of Knowhere is a remnant from that first conflict billions of years ago. The Godkiller was revealed in Iron Man #13.

  

• The largest collection of named Celestials appeared in Thor #300. Almost nothing is known about them other than their names and some of their designations which were revealed in the Marvel Handbook.

• The Celestial Fourth Host: Hargen, Tefral, Nezzar, Gammenon, Arishem, Jemiah, Eson, Oneg, and Ziran. Also included in the image is Thor and the Eternals in their Unimind form. A fan depiction of a scene in Thor #300 (October 1980).

  

  

• These are Celestials from a parallel universe, who seem to have the same appearance as some of the known Celestials from our universe. Their origin may or may not be the same as our Celestials.

  

• From what we know of the Celestials in our Universe, (in the famed Thor 300) when confronted by the power of Odin, inhabiting the Destroyer (which was imbued with the power of all of Earth's Skyfather deities) and using the fire giant's Surtur's magical sword, Twilight, Odin was unable to harm even one Celestial for more than a moment. The indestructible Destroyer and Surtur's sword were destroyed seconds later. The power to sunder the head from a Celestial (and make it stick) must be incalculable.

  

• The sundered head of the Celestial of Knowhere is not one of the named Celestials that have visited Earth (the head on the right).

Answer 2

At least in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Knowhere may be the disembodied head of the Celestial Jemiah , also known as Jemiah the Analyzer.

There isn't much concrete evidence to support this, however, in the MCU movie Guardians of the Galaxy, the bar that the group waits in before meeting with the Collector on Knowhere is known as the "Boot of Jemiah". This might just be a coincidence, but with the MCU, you never know. I found this on the Marvel Wiki page, so take this information however you want.

Boot of Jemiah is a bar and casino in Knowhere. It is frequented by criminals, outlaws, rogues, and prostitutes. The Guardians of the Galaxy stopped here before meeting with The Collector.

Answer 3

Don Cates made it canon that Knowhere is the head of the Celestial killed by Knull in this tweet.

@ian_c1701: @Doncates are we on to something here? #venom

CONFIRMED: Venom Just Gave GotG's Knowhere an Origin Story

@Doncates: Yep! The severed celestial head in VENOM #4 would someday erode and decay and become Knowhere! Good catch!

_{Twitter @Doncates tweet}

Answer 4

"The Celestials are not indestructible, however. During the Third Host, the Celestials used their combined might to slay one of their brethren for breach of conduct." _{^{- Marvel Universe; Celestials}}

Hence, it would be a 'leftover' of a Celestials war...

Answer 5

In Guardians of the Galaxy II the MCU version of "Ego the Living Planet" describes himself as a celestial, and speaks on how he was just a brain that woke up in space and wanted some matter to cover itself so it made some and it formed a world around it and eventually that became Ego who decided to "unite" all life by planting seeds on various planets and creating off spring to succeed him.

Okay so we have a vision of a Celestial blowing up a civilization by use of his staff shown by the collector. So we know that THAT type of huge cosmic armored "space Kachina" celestial exists in the MCU.

We have a space station in the ripped open inert head of a celestial where they go to meet the Collector.

So-> Huge Celestial as seen in comics confirmed, EGO describes himself as a Celestial, EGO is a big brain, brains go in head, and we have a big popped open Celestial head.

I think Ego was the remnant of a dead or dying Celestial and it might as well be the Knowhere mining station because that's a good place for a brain to come from, right? He's even going around altering and judging life where he finds it.

Answer 6

Here is one possibility but it will depend on what happens in the next two months. In Hickman's Shield Series, before it was put on hiatus, the characters were going after a rogue Celestial that was born in the sun. Now these events happen sometime in the past. About the same time as the Soviets were sending animals into space. It seems possible that they destroyed this Celestial in the past and that the remaining head is from that character.

Reference

Hickman and Weaver,Shield Volume 2 1-4 2011