James Gunn's Twitter interactions have hilariously led to speculation that there will be an ALF cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The Marvel film, which is the third standalone Guardians film and will follow up on the characters' appearances in this year's upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, just wrapped filming this week. The film is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5, 2023, and in addition to featuring the regular Guardians crew, including Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldaña as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as Groot, and Bradley Cooper as Rocket Racoon, will feature new cast member Will Poulter as Adam Warlock.
ALF is a classic television sitcom that is right in James Gunn's pop culture sweet spot. The show, which ran for 4 seasons from 1986 through 1990, followed the titular Alien Life Form, Gordon Shumway from the Planet Melmac, as he lived with a suburban family and attempted to hide from the human authorities. ALF was voiced by Paul Fusco and animated by a trio of puppeteers (including Fusco) who were hidden beneath trap doors around the set of the series. Although the show was short-lived, ALF was a sensation and even hosted his own talk show for a time in 2004, featuring guests including Drew Carey, Merv Griffin, and Freddy Got Fingered star Tom Green.
Recently, one eagle-eyed fan spotted that Gunn has been interacting a lot recently with the official ALF account on Twitter. When asked if this was a precursor to ALF being featured in the new Guardians film, ALF responded coyly, saying "can't two celebrities be best friends without it being a promotion?" denying his interest in fueling "rampant speculation" while tagging various news sources including Screen Rant. Gunn added fuel to the fire by quote tweeting this interaction, asking how people can "doubt the sincerity of our friendship." Check out the relevant tweets below:
Click here to view original post.
While it wouldn't be impossible for Gunn to negotiate the rights for ALF, it's probably unlikely that the character's full likeness would appear in the film. Although Disney, the parent company of Marvel Studios, owns a lot of different IP, ALF is not currently part of their vast library. The series was originally created by NBC, which is a subsidiary of Universal, and the most recent project in the ALF universe, a scrapped 2018 reboot series, was being developed by Warner Bros., another company that currently doesn't have a strong relationship with Disney.
However, Gunn has shown incredible flexibility in bringing some of his favorite pop culture moments into the Marvel fold. From classic rock tunes to a sneaky Slither reference to a surprise Howard the Duck cameo, the writer-director has made a habit of stuffing every corner of his films with some reference or other. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 may very well feature an ALF reference, but it will likely be something more akin to the fan's original post suggesting a reference to the planet Melmac or something similar.
Source: James Gunn
