Sylvester Stallone is in a Marvel movie. This is our new reality. Not only that, but it appears that he’s playing a relatively obscure character, one of the original Guardians of the Galaxy and even more obscure than the ones we have now. Though, admittedly Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Star-Lord were all obscure until Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning dug them up for Annihilation: Conquest in 2008.
However, there’s more to it than that: Stallone is not a one-off cameo. This is a bit of stunt casting, certainly, but he’s not just relegated to this one film with a small Easter egg role — he’s more than simply fan service. If we are to believe writer/director and architect of the Marvel Cosmic Universe, James Gunn, then Stallone will be around for Guardians 3 and beyond.
I’m an interview with The Toronto Sun, he told them that, “My plan is to see more of him. I’m not sure about him appearing in Vol. 3, we’ll have to see about that, but it’s our plan to see more of Stallone. Kevin [Feige] and I are working on what is going to become of the Marvel Cosmic Universe and where it’s going to go. We plan to see the rest of them in the future.”
When he says “them” we think he means the rest of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, who Stallone leads. They are a whole other team that, in the comics, has had varying degrees of success working with Star-Lord’s team. In the comics, they are typically friendly with each other, even if there are suspicions; however, there have certainly been plenty of very heated disagreements between the two teams, so them coming to blows is not unprecedented. Our guess is that, much like with Yondu, this is where Star-Lord and his Guardians will start with Stallone’s team: at odds until they have to work together to save the Galaxy.
He has two cats and knows all things about Doctor Strange but little else.
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