Nathan Fillion's Guardians 2 Poster Cameo

Nathan Fillion was scheduled to have another Marvel cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but since it was cut during editing, James Gunn has released the first official look. Throughout the years, Fillion has continued to remain a favorite in the geek community thanks to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, but also developed a great relationship with Gunn by working on Slither and Super. Since breaking into the blockbuster game, Gunn has continued to fill the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise with some of his closest friends and family playing roles of various sizes.

Fillion made his MCU "debut" in Guardians by voicing one of the inmates in the Kyln, but during the production of Vol. 2, it was revealed he was going to have a different, more important, but smaller cameo as Simon Williams aka Wonder Man. Unfortunately for moviegoers, this scene was cut during the editing process, but Gunn has released an official look.

For the beginning of what is sure to be a series of posts from Gunn, the director revealed one of the many posters on his Instagram. With the rest of the posters set to be released in the coming days, he kicked off this reveal by releasing a poster of a Tony Stark biopic starring Simon Williams that spoofs the design of Steve Jobs starring Michael Fassbender. Plus, Gunn expressed his hope to see Fillion fulfill this role in a larger form later on.

As many of you know one of my best friends in the world is @natefillion . 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. And, yes, I think we can consider them canon for the MCU, and I hold onto hope that Simon Williams will rise again!! #guardiansofthegalaxyvol2 #gotgvol2 #GotGPicoftheDay #nathanfillion A post shared by James Gunn (@jamesgunn) on May 17, 2017 at 10:18am PDT

With five more posters set to be released by Gunn, this is only the beginning. Even though this cameo was cut, they put a lot of effort into making these posters so it is great to see them officially released. If they had made it into the movie, they would've likely been a blink and you'll miss it type cameo, so these official posters are possibly even better looks at what Gunn had imagined.

The reveal of Fillion's unique cameo was leaked during the production on Vol. 2 when locals took pictures of the set that was being used for the Simon Williams Film Festival. It was in these pictures that blurry versions of the above poster and others could be seen, but the true nature of all of them is not clear. Fillion gave a look at his costume for Arkon previously, but the eventual release of that poster should help provide some context.

Regardless, Gunn's tease that he considers Fillion as Simon Williams to be official MCU canon could allow for Fillion to reprise the role more prominently in the future. While bringing an actor into the Guardians mix does not make a whole lot of sense, as the MCU moves forward, he could be a nice addition to the superhero world.