Who Korath is and where he first shows up
Korath is a Kree warrior, a hunter and soldier who is very good at his job and not much interested in anything else. Audiences met him first in Guardians of the Galaxy, where he works as an enforcer for Ronan the Accuser. He is the one who confronts Peter Quill on Morag in the opening stretch, and his blank reaction to the name "Star-Lord" is one of the film's early laughs.
Story order runs the other way. Captain Marvel is set decades earlier, in the nineties, and there Korath belongs to Starforce, the elite Kree unit that fights alongside Carol Danvers. So his "first appearance" depends on how you watch.
Korath's movies, in story order
- Captain Marvel (2019): a Starforce soldier, the earliest point in his timeline.
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): Ronan's right hand, hunting for the Orb.
- What If...? (2021): an alternate-universe animated appearance.
In release order, simply flip the two films. Both films are marked essential on our timeline, though mostly for reasons bigger than Korath himself.
Turning points (light spoilers)
Korath does not get a character arc in the usual sense. What changes between the two films is who he serves. In Captain Marvel he follows Starforce commander Yon-Rogg and the Kree chain of command, acting as muscle on missions against the Skrulls. By the time of Guardians, he has attached himself to Ronan, a Kree radical who rejects the peace treaty with Xandar.
That shift says a lot about him. Korath is loyal to strength and to the mission in front of him, not to a cause. Seen back to back, the disciplined soldier of the first film becomes a hired blade for a fanatic in the second. How his story ends in Guardians is best seen rather than read about, and it happens quickly.
Characters connected to him
His most important link is Ronan. Lee Pace plays the Accuser in both films, so Captain Marvel quietly reunites the pair years before the Guardians ever meet them. Korath also shares scenes with Carol Danvers and the rest of Starforce, and in Guardians he crosses paths with Quill, Gamora and Drax. You can find most of them in our MCU character directory.
About the actor: Djimon Hounsou
Djimon Hounsou gives Korath a stillness that makes him read as dangerous even when he has only a few lines. Captain Marvel brings him back as a younger version of the man from Guardians, and his presence is one of the small threads tying the two cosmic films together.
Outside the MCU he is known for Gladiator, where he plays the gladiator Juba, for Blood Diamond opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, and for Steven Spielberg's Amistad. He also played the wizard in the DC film Shazam!, so he has worked on both sides of the comic book movie divide.
Which order to watch Korath's films
For a character-focused watch, start with Captain Marvel and follow it with Guardians of the Galaxy. You get Korath's life in the order he lived it, and you see Ronan before he turns into a full villain. Release order works fine too, since Captain Marvel never expects you to remember Korath from the later film.
Either way, neither movie is skippable for the wider saga. Captain Marvel sets up Carol Danvers ahead of the final Avengers films, and Guardians introduces the team that carries the cosmic side of the MCU for years.