See Beta Ray Bill and Starhawk in the Guardians of the Galaxy Blu-ray Special Features

While some fans have speculated about Thor supporting character Beta Ray Bill appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy, either as a piece of Tivan's collection or with a member of his race represented by the skeleton depicted above, director James Gunn has denied that the character is in the film.

(Also, that skeleton looks more like Salakk from the Green Lantern Corps than anything from Marvel to us, but that's a different discussion.)

That doesn't mean Beta Ray Bill won't show up on the Guardians of the Galaxy Blu-ray release in just over a week, though.

As a framing device for the special features on the Blu-ray and on select streaming services, Marvel produced "Galactic Adventurer Featuring James Gunn," designed to look like an old 8- or 16-bit side-scrolling video game.

There are plenty of fun things to watch out for in the game sequences, but probably our favorite is this shot...

...of Beta Ray Bill and Starhawk, the founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy many fans believe might turn out to be Star-Lord's father.

They appear as static icons in the background of a scene set on Xandar, each passing by in a few seconds while the Guardians make their way from setting to setting, guided by James Gunn (yes, really).

Starhawk is one of the Guardians from the future, a member of Guardians 3000 and a teammate of Yondu's in the comics. Beta Ray Bill is a member of an alien race who had been blessed with the power of Thor at one point -- during an era when there were several "other" Thors, constituting a "Thor Corps" not unlike the groups of Novas and Deadpools Marvel currently has.

Guardians of the Galaxy comes to Blu-ray and DVD on December 9. It's available via streaming and video-on-demand services now.