Of all the new faces to appear in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, one of the most easily recognizable is Sylvester Stallone, who plays a character – we won't mention him in case of spoilers in this opening paragraph, but will discuss that lower down the page – that James Gunn and the Marvel team think can stick around and appear in other movies.
"My plan is to see more of him," director James Gunn tells the Toronto Sun. "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."
(As warned, Spoilers lie ahead for anyone who hasn't seen the film...)
In this case, "them" refers to the team that Stallone's Stakar is part of: currently a Ravager, he's also known as Starhawk and is one of the original Guardians comic team alongside Aleta Ogord (Michelle Yeoh), Charlie-27 (Ving Rhames), Krugarr (brought to life via CG, Mainframe (voiced by Miley Cyrus) and Michael Rosenbaum’s Martinex. Given the casting, it's not tough to imagine that Gunn or whoever directs other space-borne Marvel films might want to use them in the future.
"I think the first three movies tell a single story and that story is pretty simple,” Gunn says. “I think that there could be a Guardians Vol. 4, but it would not be the same. It would not be the same group; basically the story of this group (Star-Lord, Gamora and the rest) ends with Vol. 3. And though he'll likely want to move on after that, Gunn has become a key part of the Marvel team and will be guiding that future, which, if he has his way, will include Stallone.
“I will be helping to plant the seeds that will lead to the next decade,” he says. “I’m helping to decide what projects we’ll be pursuing outside of Vol. 3, and what the next cosmic characters we will focus on. It’s my plan to find a place for Sly in the future of the Marvel Universe."
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is out in the UK now and hits the States on 5 May.