James Gunn On Cosmic MCU Movies, David Bowie's 'Guardians 2' Cameo, 'Mary Poppins' & More

With the home video release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 arriving this month, director James Gunn has been making the publicity rounds all over the place to talk about the Marvel Studios sequel. Just this weekend brought a far-out music video for the "Guardians Inferno" disco track from the film's soundtrack, and you can see Gunn shaking his groove thing all over the place.

Thankfully, James Gunn was able to sit still for a little bit to talk about the developing cosmic movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 soundtrack the role that he wanted David Bowie to play before the musician sadly passed away, and how the Mary Poppins reference came to be included in the movie. Plus, "Guardians Inferno" star David Hasselhoff reveals he's been trying to convince Gunn to tackle a Knight Rider reboot. Find out all about these tidbits below.

First up, James Gunn is being pretty tight-lipped about which movies he's working on with Kevin Feige that will be part of the next 10 years of movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But did offer up a status update on those movies that would follow Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to The Hollywood Reporter:

"Those scripts are already in the works. Kevin and I talk about it all the time; we just had a meeting today. Discussing what is the next iteration of cosmic characters and where are the characters that we've already created going to go in the next batch of films."

James Gunn previously indicated that he was planning on bringing back all of the Ravagers from the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. That includes Starhawk (Sylvester Stallone), Aleta Ogord (Michelle Yeoh), Charlie-27 (Ving Rhames), Krugarr (a CG character), Mainframe (voiced by Miley Cyrus) and Martinex (Michael Rosenbaum). Those characters are actually the original Guardians of the Galaxy in the comics, but will they become the new team once the current roster finishes their arc in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3?

James Gunn won't expand upon future plans for all those characters, but he does affirm, "I'm definitely interested in the direction that these characters are headed and their roles in the Marvel Universe." One thing he said he won't do though is include the detail that those characters are actually from 1,000 years in the future, "That is not something that we're dealing with. These are older characters and more criminal than our Guardians. So we're focusing on that." If they're more criminal, maybe we'll get some kind of cosmic heist movie following The Ravagers?

For those already itching to know what songs will be on the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, director James Gunn says that he's already selected the songs he wants to use in the movie. While the first two movies were chock full of 1970s pop rock classics, Gunn indicated that the new soundtrack would be surprisingly different. The Hollywood Reporter asked if there would be a good amount of songs from the 1980s and 1990s, but Gunn hesitated to confirm or deny, though he did offer up this, "Vol. 1 was a playlist of Meredith Quill's songs, whereas Vol. 2 contained Yondu's songs."

It's interesting that Gunn sees Awesome Mix Vol. 2 as having Yondu's songs. While there are certainly a few songs that tie into the fatherly relationship Yondu had with Star-Lord, they don't all feel like they're intended to represent Yondu. But if that's how Gunn sees the soundtracks, that must mean that the songs for Awesome Mix Vol. 3 will be representative of another character. But who? Will Star-Lord finally be making his own mix? He's got a Zune now so anything is possible.

After we lost the music icon David Bowie at the beginning of 2016, director James Gunn revealed that there were discussions about trying to give the man who contributed "Moonage Daydream" to the first Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack a cameo in the sequel. But he never revealed who that character would have been until now.

In a Facebook Q&A, Gunn said, "I wanted David Bowie to play a member of Yondu's original crew." The question is which of The Ravagers we saw highlighted at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 would have been played by Bowie? The obvious choice is the crystal-looking Martinex, unless of course Gunn wanted Bowie to originally have the role that went to Sylvester Stallone. Maybe Gunn will clarify another time.

In what many would argue is the best moment in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we see Yondu slowly descending from danger by holding on to his whistle-controlled arrow. Star-Lord astutely points out that he looks like Mary Poppins, to which Yondu unknowingly asks, "Is he cool?" Opting to let Yondu have this moment, Star-Lord says, "Hell yeah, he's cool," which prompts Yondu to hilariously and proudly proclaim, "I'm Mary Poppins y'all!"

Believe it or not, that was a moment that wasn't in the script. It came about because the way Yondu descends from the sky wasn't intended to look so goofy. Gunn says, "When I was visualizing the scene, it didn't look quite as heroic as I intended it to be. So then I put the Poppins line in Peter Quill's mouth. And Yondu, of course, not knowing the name Mary or Poppins, might think he's sort of a Lee Marvin type, and he owns it." Happy accidents, right?

Finally, in addition to David Hasselhoff making a surprising quick cameo during the confrontation between Star-Lord and his father Ego, the Baywatch star also features prominently in that aforementioned "Guardians Inferno" music video (you need to watch it here). That means Hasselhoff has been spending plenty of time with Gunn, giving him time to pitch the idea to bring back The Hoff's most iconic character.

Sitting with Gunn for an interview, Hasselhoff said, "I've given some ideas to James for Knight Rider, and he responded in a big way. If it does go forward, I don't want it to be spoofed like Baywatch or 21 Jump Street. Those films lose what it's about, and you have to respect the fans."

Though 21 Jump Street isn't as true to the source material, it's also arguably the best big screen adaptation of a TV show, almost assuredly because it doesn't pander to fans. That's where most film adaptations of TV shows fail. It's possible to make a Knight Rider movie that's true to the original show while still offering a fresh take on the material, but I don't think David Hasselhoff will be the one to make it happen.

Funnily enough, there was a time when Chris Pratt was rumored to be part of a Knight Rider reboot (though the actor said it was "bullshit"), so maybe James Gunn could get behind the camera and get Star-Lord to hop in KITT for a ride.

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That's all we have from James Gunn for now, but with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hitting home video this month, there will likely be plenty more to talk about soon.