As far as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 casting decisions go, this one’s a banger. The former Hannah Montana, now twerk-happy, perpetually stoned, Flaming Lips collaborator, Miley Cyrus, has been confirmed to make an appearance in the oncoming blockbuster. It’s an eyebrow-raiser, to be sure, but this is James Gunn’s style, and he’s always talked about cameos in the franchise, with none other than David Bowie being considered at one point (his untimely death put the kibosh on that).
Miley Cyrus is no Bowie, of course, but it’s still the kind of “….that might actually work” risk that’s propelled the Guardians of the Galaxy from superhero D-Listers right to the top of the Marvel comics pile. The news was confirmed by lifestyle blogger Sarah Ruhlman, reporting from a live event to promote the film. She also let us know which character Cyrus is playing, so if you value spoilers, do not read past this paragraph.
According to Ruhlman, Cyrus is to show up as Mainframe. The character’s comic book origins are on Earth-982 (the universe where everyone’s gotten a bit old) with their Tony Stark having a low moment and deciding to retire from superhero work. To ensure that his presence wouldn’t be too missed, he designed an android, Mainframe, patterned after his own armor. The android went on to lead A-Next, a fresh formation of the Avengers, with most of his teammates never even realizing he wasn’t human.
Now, I know what you’re thinking – where in the hell does a fake Iron Man fit into Guardians of the Galaxy‘s space setting? In addition, we’ve already had a movie where Tony Stark makes powerful autonomous robots, leaving Mainframe sounding awfully like a Vision clone. And… well, Miley Cyrus doesn’t quite seem like the first voice you’d expect to hear emanating from a Stark industries robot.
Are they just repurposing the name for an entirely new character, or will we get to see mechanical twerking and tongue waggling help save the universe (again?). We’ll know very soon, as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 lands in theatres on May 5th.