First, we found out that David Bowie (RIP) was in talks to make a cameo in the film before his untimely passing, then we found on that Benicio del Toro likely won’t reprise as The Collector, and then yesterday, director James Gunn posted a photo of the completed script on his Facebook page and suggested that he’d be sending it through to the cast shortly.
You can check out Gunn’s post below and — though Bradley Cooper and Karen Gillan’s names are conspicuously untagged — ScreenCrush reports that the director has a simple explanation for the omission: They’re not on Facebook. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Michael Rooker, and Sean Gunn are all included and, though it was assumed that this group would be returning for the sequel, it looks like it’s now officially official.
Coming to you presently, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista (Batista), Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, Vin Diesel.
Posted by James Gunn on Wednesday, January 13, 2016
In other casting news, The Hateful Eight star Kurt Russell is still in talks to play the role of Star-Lord’s father, while Pom Klementieff (Oldboy) has reportedly joined the cast, possibly as Mantis, mistress of the martial arts.
Getting back to Gunn’s post, it looks like this script has gone through several drafts in the past seven months, with white, blue, pink, and yellow revisions all leading up to the finished green draft. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the current iteration of the script is set in stone, as it will probably change quite a bit once it’s in the hands of the actors and actresses, and producers can see what works and what doesn’t. We’ve also got a long way to go before we see pictures, posters, trailers or anything that might give us a true picture of what this sequel might look like.
Either way, this at least brings us one step closer to the return of Peter Quill and his rag-tag band of anti-heroes.
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is currently scheduled for a May 5, 2017, release.
