Of all the educated guesses that began pouring onto the interwebs regarding Star-Lord’s parentage in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, few – if any – predicted that James Gunn would introduce Ego the Living Planet to be Peter Quill’s old man.
But while chatting with Empire magazine, Gunn shed new light on how Ego’s place in the spacefaring sequel came to be, not to mention how the addition of the ancient character was actually Chris Pratt’s idea in the first place.
“He was actually not in my head initially, but one day Chris suggested him,” Gunn told Empire. “I would have been really disappointed if he’d said no. Hey, if you have to cast anything, Kurt’s a pretty good way to go.”
We already know that Ego will appear in a humanoid form when Guardians 2 checks into theaters – allowing Kurt Russell to portray the brash, appropriately egotistical persona – though Gunn has assured fans that knowing the identity of Quill’s father so far out won’t spoil our enjoyment of the final film.
That’s reassuring, of course, but it does conjure up a whole host of unanswered questions – questions that Pratt’s Star-Lord will be just as keen to resolve come May.
“You’re going to see these characters having to endure the realities of being in a family. You’re talking about a guy who’s been longing to know who his father is for a long time. He’ll discover if that person lives up to the expectations he has in his head.”
While hopeful fans remain on the outlook for the sequel’s debut trailer, Marvel has been stoking excitement with the release of some truly striking concept art. The latest of which featured our galactic crew – Star-Lord, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Drax (Dave Bautista) and a cutesy Groot (Vin Diesel) – fighting against a tentacled foe.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will slam into theaters on May 5, 2017 with a fresh bunch of new, fist-pumping power ballads to boot.