So we’ve been hearing rumours for a while now that Sylvester “UH EM DAH LAW!” Stallone has a role of some sort in Marvel’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I didn’t think too much of it as writer/director James Gunn has a habit of putting his favourite actors into his movies in small roles (Nathan Fillion is in the original Guardians but is completely unrecognizable thanks to makeup and CG). The thing that got me the most excited about this possibility is that with Kurt Russell already cast in a major role in the movie, this would mean a reunion of sorts for Tango and Cash.
But now the grapevine has been churning out some new rumours as to exactly who Stallone will be playing and they certainly make for some interesting speculation. On Location Vacations (who I have never heard of before now) reported late last week that while they don’t know who Stallone’s character is, the costume that he will be wearing has a resemblance to the outfit he wore when he played Judge Dredd in the shlocky 1995 comic book adaptation.
Now while there’s nobody in Guardians of the Galaxy universe sporting massive golden eagles on their shoulders, the color scheme, gaudy accessories and obligatory helmet does hint at outfits worn by the Nova Corps.
Of course the Nova Corps in the movie actually received a much more subdued look when compared to their original comic book counterparts (not to mention that they’re nothing more than space cops now instead of the superpowered living rockets from the comics), but there’s certainly still enough similarities left over to make the logical leap that Stallone will in fact be a Nova guardsman. If that is the case though, then I don’t think we’re going to see him in much more significant of a role than the Nova guardsmen John C. Reilly and Peter Serafinowicz played in Guardians 1.
It could of course be that Stallone’s purported role has nothing to with the Nova Corps at all. That’s exactly what Heroic Hollywood (who we do actually know and have a reasonable amount of trust for) is reporting, claiming that Stallone is actually playing a Ravager, alongside the recently officially cast Tommy Flanagan. If you recall, the Ravagers was the group run by Michael Rooker’s Yondu and who Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord grew up with. They’re a motley crew with lots of different species and wardrobes, so Stallone’s alleged Judge Dredd-like costume could certainly fit right in with them.
None of the Ravagers are really big name comic book characters so if Stallone is one of them, he could be anybody really. /Film has an interesting hypothesis that maybe both rumours are correct, and that Stallone is actually playing a Nova Corp guardsman who is actually undercover in Yondu’s Ravagers. Of course this all hinges on very important fact though: Stallone has never actually been officially confirmed as being in the movie. For all we know, this whole speculative exercise is for nothing. With Gunn completely done with the film’s script a month ago, and the film recently going into production, we’ll probably start getting a whole lot more answers soon.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is scheduled for release on May 5, 2017.
Last Updated: March 15, 2016
