The 2014 blockbusterGuardians of the Galaxyfeatured a ton of Easter Eggs, including the now-infamous shot of Howard the Duck. And it’s already clear that its sequel has plenty more. DirectorJames Gunnalready teased that there is a very earlyEaster Eggin the fourth shot of the film, but, unless you got to attend the world premiere or press screenings this week, you’ll have to wait until May 5 to check it out. Unfortunately, the director also revealed in another interview that he had to cut one particular scene which featured a ton of Easter Eggs, and may have includedNathan Fillion’s character.
Last April, a report surfaced thatNathan Fillionwas playing a Marvel Comics character known as Simon Williams, who in the comics was a reformed villain who ultimately joined the Avengers, but later left the superhero group to pursue a career as an actor, although he was eventually pulled back into the Avengers. Photos taken from the Cartersville, Georgia set last spring revealed that part of the story involves a Simon Williams Film Festival, with a number of posters for Simon Williams' movies, including one based on the real Marvel character Arkon. During an interview with Collider, directorJames Gunnrevealed that they had to cut a scene involving “Grandpa Quill” on Earth, which featured a ton of Easter Eggs. Here’s what he had to say below.
“Unfortunately we had a sort of terrible cutting, one of our scenes we cut was with Grandpa Quill on earth, and we had a lot of Easter Eggs in that scene. As much as we had inThe Collector’s museum, probably more. I’ll post pictures of that on social networking at some point. It might be on the deleted scenes, we’ll see.”
While the filmmaker didn’t specifically confirm that scene featured the Simon Williams Film Festival, it certainly seems likely. The set photos revealed posters for Simon Williams movies such asArkon, the romantic comedyOh, Rebecca, Haxan 2, a thriller about a male witch, and a biopic about the belovedMarvel characterTony Stark, which appeared to be in the same vein asSteve Jobs.Nathan Fillionhimself even took to Instagram earlier today to share a photo from his Arkon movie-within-the-movie, where he’s seen flying a spacecraft.Nathan Fillionhad a previous cameo as one of the Kyln prisoners in the originalGuardians of the Galaxy, but it seems we won’t get to see him in action this time around. As it turns out though, this was one of the few full scenes that was actually cut from the whole film.
“Our first cut was probably two hours and 30-some minutes, and our final cut was two hours and 17 minutes or something. What we cut mostly was fat. I think we only cut one short scene, two short scenes, but other than that, it was just cutting fat and manipulating that kind of stuff.”
While fans may not get to see that Easter Egg scene until the home video release, there will be a record number ofGuardians 2 post-credit scenes. Shortly after the first press screening this week, journalists reported that there were four post-credit scenes, althoughJames Gunnlater clarified on social media that there was actually five, with one being withheld from the press. Unfortunately, no details were given for these scenes. But in just 15 short days, we’ll get to see all of these stingers for ourselves. In the meantime, take a look atNathan Fillion’s set photo from his discarded scene inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, hitting theaters May 5.
