Hitfix has a good track record on Marvel movie rumors, and they just dropped a huge number of updates on James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy. The biggest news is that John C. Reilly has been offered a role. The character’s name is a potential spoiler, so we’ll get to it at the end, with reaction GIFs.
They also say Rocket Raccoon will be introduced as a guard — along with Wal Russ, the talking walrus (of course) — at The Keystone Quadrant, an intergalactic insane asylum. That was a perfectly normal sentence.
They reminded us that Drax the Destroyer (being played by the WWE’s Dave Bautista) used to be a saxophone player. Finally, an excuse to cast Greasy Sax Man in a Marvel film. Spin-off franchise? *fingers crossed, chests thoroughly oiled*
Hitfix also reports Groot will come to Earth to experiment on humans, but Nick Fury will talk him into working with us instead. They also say Thanos won’t be the main villain, which we already suspected, considering Michael Rooker is playing Yondu and Lee Pace is playing an unnamed villain. Hitfix says (spoiler coming) Pace’s character will eventually side with the Guardians and potentially be set up for a spin-off movie.
Now for the biggest spoiler: Marvel reportedly wants John C. Reilly to play Rhomann Dey, but they seem to have changed what the character is.
Basically, he’s been designed as the Agent Coulson of the “Guardians” movies. He’s the human agent who serves as a go-between, keeping the Guardians in line and reporting to SHIELD about their activities. What’s that you say? Rhomann Dey was the leader of the Nova Corps in the comics and not a human being on Earth? And he basically became the Abin Sur of the Marvel Universe when he picked Richard Rider to give his Nova powers to? [Hitfix]
I guess we could be angry about the change, or…
He’ll have a peer, someone who is their liaison for the Guardians, and Marvel is looking at names as disparate as Hugh Laurie, Alan Rickman, and Ken Watanabe for that part.
I thought I’d be mad about making huge changes to Rhomman Dey, but it’s John C. Reilly, so I’m okay with this.
[Sources: Hitfix, Dr Steve Brule, and IFC]