Kurt Russell is Groot now, too. The erstwhile Snake Plissken has boarded James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 as Star-Lord’s dad, a mysterious entity called Ego the Living Planet. In the new issue of Empire – onsale on August 25 – Gunn reveals that Russell’s casting was actually Chris Pratt’s idea.
“He was actually not in my head initially, but one day Chris suggested him,” explains Gunn, "and I would have been really disappointed if he’d said no. Hey, if you have to cast anything, Kurt’s a pretty good way to go.”
Peter Quill has, of course, been scouring the universe for his dad since the beginning of the first film. Now he’s found him, things may not be too straightforward between Star-Lord and his old man. “You’re going to see these characters having to endure the realities of being in a family,” says Pratt. “You’re talking about a guy who’s been longing to know who his father is for a long time. He’ll discover if that person lives up to the expectations he has in his head.”
That’d be a doubly complex dynamic if dad had his own gravitational pull too. Happily, Ego – “an ancient cosmic being who has been on the edges of the universe for aeons by himself,” says Gunn – won’t be appearing in his planetary guise. He’s a regular-looking joe, reformed from humanoid components – including Ego-nads. “I have a penis,” he declares in a scene shown at Comic-Con. “It’s not bad either.”
For more on Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, plus a tonne of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story exclusives, pick up the new issue of Empire on August 25. Even better, subscribe right here{