It seems as though a pair of fan favorites may have been cut out of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, as first Nathan Fillion, reported to be featured in a cameo as Simon Williams, posted a photo on Instagram possibly insinuating a scene with him will not make the final cut of the film.
However given the wording of Fillion’s post, this could be a joke on his part and does, in a round-about way, confirm he was on-set and in costume for an unconfirmed role in the film.
Then, at a Hollywood red carpet event (via SlashFilm), director James Gunn revealed that an earlier draft of the script contained a role for Adam Warlock.
“I love Adam Warlock. He’s one of my favorite characters,” Gunn explained. “In all truth, I wrote an early treatment where I had Adam Warlock as a part…this is your big scoop, because I don’t think I’ve told anybody this… It was Adam Warlock. He was a big part of the screenplay and I realized it was one character too many. And I adored the character. I adored what we had done with him. I think we did something really creative and unique with Adam Warlock. But it was one character too many and I didn’t want to lose Mantis and Mantis was more organically part of the movie anyway. So I decided to save him for later.”
However, Gunn did leave the door open for Adam Warlock to appear in the future, saying he was working on a treatment with the character – though Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige clarified that he would not appear in Avengers: Infinity War. George Marston
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is due out in theaters May 5.