James Gunn Celebrates Sylvester Stallone’s Birthday with New Guardians of the Galaxy BTS Photo

July 6 was Sylvester Stallone‘s 75th birthday with fans and celebrities sharing their well-wishes to the legendary actor on his day. Now, filmmaker James Gunn is also offering up his birthday wishes for the actor as well. Stallone appeared in Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as the Ravager Stakar Ogord and is also offering his voice to King Shark in Gunn’s upcoming The Suicide Squad which debuts in theaters next month. Gunn celebrated Stallone’s birthday by sharing a behind-the-scenes photo of himself with Stallone from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with the caption “Happy Birthday to my friend, the legend, @TheSlyStallone!”

Stallone next appears as the voice of King Shark in The Suicide Squad, a role that Stallone teased last November. At the time, he revealed only that he had been cast in a secret role and that the movie was a “spectacular effort”. When the trailer for the film dropped earlier this year, fans quickly picked out Stallone’s voice as that of King Shark. He doesn’t have much in the way of dialogue in the trailer, just a moment where he points to his hand and says “hand”, but it’s pretty unmistakably Stallone – not to mention it adds a bit of levity to a character who is shown to be pretty fierce and over the top. In the trailer, he’s literally eating people and tearing them in two.

In an interview with Den of Geek, Gunn explained that he wrote King Shark with Stallone in mind.

“Strangely, as I’ve become more able to get whatever actor I want for roles in movies, I started taking risks and writing for actors that I don’t know,” Gunn revealed. “So for instance, I wrote Bloodsport for Idris Elba, having never met him, but being a big fan of his work in other places. And I knew Sly, and I know him pretty well. So I wrote the role of King Shark with his voice in mind.”

As for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it’s unclear if Stallone will appear in that film. Generally, not much is known about that film yet at all, though star Chris Pratt recently said that the film would start principal photography by the end of this year.

The Suicide Squad releases August 6 in theaters and on HBO Max.