Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has an amazing surprise cameo – and here’s how it came about
Director James Gunn reveals how he got an 80s superstar in the movie – and even wrote him his own song
Sci-fi superhero space opera Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 blasts into UK cinemas this weekend, and amidst all the fight scenes, space battles and killer song choices there’s one moment that will almost certainly be a highlight for many fans – a very special cameo that nobody saw coming.
We’ve chatted to director James Gunn about exactly how the cameo came about, but before we go into detail we should say that its inclusion is a bit of a spoiler, so if you haven’t seen the film yet we’d advise stepping away to avoid specifics.
Still here? Then you’ll have been as surprised as we were to see none other than 80s superstar David Hasselhoff in the film, in a scene where cosmic character Ego (Kurt Russell) transforms into him to make a point to his son Peter (aka Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord).
Throughout the film Peter refers to Hasselhoff as the father he never had, regaling love interest Gamora (Zoe Saldana) with stories of how he told school friends that his absent dad was actually an on-tour Hasselhoff and keeping a picture of him in his wallet.
The 80s legend even appears in the film’s credits rapping an original song about the movie storyline, which you can actually listen to already (see video below).
Oh, and the reason the song keeps chanting Zardu Hasslefrau is because that’s what Gamora mistakenly thinks the actor and singer is called. It’s pretty close, in fairness.
“I think Hasselhoff was what I came up with from the beginning [for Peter’s boyhood hero],” Gunn told us. “Then when it came to the moment later in the movie, it’s a Hasselhoff scene with a great cameo [opportunity], and I contacted him and he was totally into it.
Gunn added: “I liked him so much that I wrote a song for him to sing over the end credits, which we had a great time recording. And so he’s become a good friend, he’s a great guy."
On an awesomeness scale of 1 to 10, we'd say this one is Hoff the charts.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is in UK cinemas now
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
