Guardians of the Galaxy director and co-writer James Gunn offered up a heartfelt statement this week that — along with sharing his own, very personal connections to Bowie’s work and the effect it had on his life’s trajectory — revealed that the musician was being courted for a cameo role in the upcoming sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.
“Just a very short while ago Kevin Feige and I were talking about a cameo role in Guardians Vol. 2, and he brought up Bowie’s name,” wrote Gunn on Facebook. “I told him nothing in the world would make me happier, but I heard from common friends he wasn’t doing well. We heard back that he was OK and it could potentially happen. Who knows what that was about? But, for whatever reason, it made my Twitter revelation more of a surprise.”
Given the cosmic flavor of Guardians of the Galaxy and its occasionally surreal, playful tone, a cameo by Ziggy Stardust himself wouldn’t seem entirely out of line for the film, but alas, the musician’s death this week at age 69 made such a crossover impossible. Still, Bowie’s influence on the film could still be felt in the sequel’s soundtrack, according to Gunn.
“To my mind, Ziggy Stardust is perhaps the greatest rock and roll album of all time. We featured “Moonage Daydream” in Guardians, but I always thought the album’s character was felt far beyond that, in the aesthetics, in the integral and seemingly-natural linking in popular culture of ’70s rock and space opera,” wrote Gunn. “I’ve been trying to work another song from Ziggy into the sequel, which would make Bowie the only artist to have a song on both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. I thought this was fair and appropriate. Although I cut the scene it was used in from the script, we have the rights. Who knows. Maybe I can figure a way out.”
As so many others have done since the news of Bowie’s passing, Gunn concluded his post by thanking Bowie for everything he gave the world.
“Thank you, David, for all you’ve given to my life, my relationships, and my career,” he wrote. “Thank you most for helping me to make it through high school. Your music let me believe there was something magic out there, I only needed to hold on a few more years to experience it. I’m glad I did.”
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 is scheduled to hit theaters May 5, 2017.
