One of the biggest surprises to come out of Marvel’s Comic-Con panel was the reveal that Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight) is playing Ego the Living Planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. A relatively obscure character, it’s an inventive bit of casting by writer and director James Gunn, but with confirmation that Ego is Star-Lord’s father, how exactly is that going to work?
As of right now, we simply don’t know. However, he’s clearly going to have a humanoid form as you can see from the gallery above. This obviously creates even more questions, but in a recent Facebook post, Gunn elaborated on the decision to have Russell play this character.
“I asked myself, if a planet was alive, how could that be? And how could it father a child? The answers to those questions took me to a far deeper place that I expected. I don’t want to give away too many answers at this time. But what Nova Prime said about Peter’s father at the end of Vol. 1 is certainly true – he is something ancient and unknown. And, as we will discover, being a cosmic being, alone for eons, is perhaps even more lonely than being the universe’s sole talking raccoon. I can’t wait for you guys to see Kurt Russell bring this character to life onscreen. It has been a rapturous experience creating Ego with him. We have both pushed ourselves as far as we can go in making him real, and grounded, and emotionally centered.”
That sounds absolutely fantastic, and seeing how this all plays out in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 promises to be a lot of fun. Back when the first movie was announced, many doubted Gunn’s ability to make the likes of Rocket Raccoon and Groot work in live-action, but he nailed it in one of Marvel’s best movies yet, so chances are the same will be true for Ego.
Now the question is, when will we get our first look at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? The first trailer being attached to Doctor Strange seems likely, though Disney could wait until Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is released. We’ll just have to wait and see, but what we do know is that the footage shown at Comic-Con this weekend was unfortunately exclusive to the event.