Peter Quill is no stranger to 80s pop culture icons. Throughout Guardians of the Galaxy and its Vol. 2 sequel, the man also known as Star-Lord drops countless references to TV shows and music from the era he was on Earth for.
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With David Hasselhoff serving as Quill’s father figure, Cheers providing his understanding of “unspoken things,” and music shaping his entire life, it would not be a huge surprise if Quill were to know who Kurt Russell is. In fact, it would be more of a surprise if Quill did not know who Kurt Russell is, assuming he exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Russell was a huge star in the 80s!
As a result of this interesting paradox provided by Russell playing Pratt’s Ego the Living Planet father, a Reddit user has come up with a couple of interesting theories regarding Russell’s existence in the MCU.
So when Ego assumes his “human” form and heads to Earth during the 80’s, he is identical to young Kurt Russell who was a mega-star during that time period in pop culture. With no call out to that similarity, I think there is an argument to say that the universe we see in the MCU is completely without the actual Kurt Russell. Now there are two questions that come up.
Is it possible, that through simple probability, Ego just happened to take Kurt Russell’s form and since Meredith Quill knew that he was from space she accepted this fact and just didn’t mention it to Peter? I don’t think so. Because one would assume that if she was aware of the resemblance she would have given Peter a picture of Kurt Russell to carry around…not letting him choose David Hasselhoff to be his “imaginary” father.
Does that mean that all actors who play heroes and villains alike can’t exist as the actual actors in the universe? Because with all the famous people involved there has most likely been a reference to a piece of real-world pop culture that included an actor that was already playing a character in the MCU. That’s enough to make your head spin. My argument against this really just comes down to the timing. The other actor’s characters exist in that closed bubble, however since Ego traveled to the 80’s when Kurt Russell was thriving..that kind of direct overlap makes me question it.
This, of course, opens the endless and unsolvable debates of whether or not the actors portraying any characters within the MCU exist as themselves within it. Does Tony Stark know who Robert Downey Jr. is? How has Nick Fury never watched Pulp Fiction? It’s a hole that can be dug forever and applied to almost every film set in our reality… Does Jack Reacher know who Tom Cruise is?
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is written and directed by James Gunn (Slither). The film marks the return of the original Guardians, including Chris Pratt (Jurassic World) as Peter Quill/Star-Lord; Zoe Saldana (Star Trek Into Darkness) as Gamora; Dave Bautista (Spectre) as Drax; Vin Diesel (Furious 7) as the voice of Groot; Bradley Cooper (American Sniper) as the voice of Rocket; Michael Rooker (Jumper) as Yondu; Karen Gillan (The Big Short) as Nebula; and Sean Gunn (Gilmore Girls) as Kraglin. New cast members include Pom Klementieff (Oldboy), Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby, Everest), Chris Sullivan (The Knick, The Drop) and Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight, The Thing).
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is in theaters now. Spider-Man: Homecoming lands on July 7, 2017, followed by Thor: Ragnarok on November 3, 2017. After that Black Panther debuts on February 16, 2018, while Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4, 2018. Ant-Man and the Wasp is slated for July 6, 2018, followed by Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019.
