If you saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and also stuck around for all five of the credits scenes, you know that there are plenty of cool cameos to enjoy. However, some fans might have been disappointed that one cameo ending up on the cutting room floor: Nathan Fillion.
Word of the Nathan Fillion cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 first emerged in April of 2016 when some set photos spotted a line-up of faux movie posters featuring the Firefly star credited as actor Simon Williams. Fans lost their mind at this detail, because Simon Williams is also known as Wonder Man in the Marvel Comics universe, and it looked like he might make a cameo during a small town Simon Williams Film Festival. So why didn’t we see Nathan Fillion in the movie, even if it was just in those movie posters? James Gunn has explained everything you need to know.
James Gunn posted one of the movie posters that were spotted on set last spring on Facebook:
He also accompanied the image with clarification on Nathan Fillion’s role in the movie, which apparently never went beyond anything more than being featured in these movie posters:
“As many of you know one of my best friends in the world is Nathan Fillion. Along with Michael Rooker and Gregg Henry he’s been in every movie I’ve directed – even as a monstrous, perverted voice in Guardians of the Galaxy. I didn’t have a good cameo for him in Vol. 2 – and I wanted to bring him more fully into the MCU at some point, so I didn’t want to make him Aakon Guard #2, narrowing his chance of a more substantial role in the future. I really do love the character of Simon Williams/Wonder Man in the comics – a sometimes douchey actor/superhero – and could see Nathan clearly in that role (not because he’s a douchebag but because he’s great at playing one). But, of course, in a movie set 99.9% in space I didn’t really have a place for him. So in a small flash to earth I decided to put a theater playing a “Simon Williams Film Festival,” with six Simon Williams movie posters outside. Obviously, from the posters, he’s had a run of B movies. Most of them in themselves are Easter eggs of some sort or another. Unfortunately, the small section of the scene where they appeared slowed down the movie and I had to cut the Easter eggs from the film (along with storefronts named after comic book luminaries Starlin, Mantlos, Annett and others). Equally a bummer was that a lot of people took photos of these posters on the day so suddenly every fan site was reporting that Nathan was playing Wonder Man in he movie. He was even the third-billed actor on IMDB!
So that’s the full story. Nathan’s only cameo in the movie ever were these posters. I’ll post them all over the next few days.
There you have it. Nathan Fillion was never meant to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe beyond these fake movie posters, even though the actor tried to hint at otherwise when he posted the photo at the top of this article to Instagram (a move that definitely looks like a joke in retrospect). So does that mean Nathan Fillion isn’t Simon Williams in the MCU? James Gunn clarified for the curious fans out there:
“Yes, I think we can consider them canon for the MCU, and I hold onto hope that Simon Williams will rise again!!”
Does that mean we’ll see Simon Williams in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Anything is possible.
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