Footloose Star Proud to Get Name Dropped by Guardians of the Galaxy

While Kevin Bacon has worked with filmmaker James Gunn a few times, and even got to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, he is not alone in his appreciation for the love Footloose got in the Guardians franchise. Bacon’s co-star Lori Singer, speaking with ComicBook.com in support of the new, 4K remaster of Footloose, told us that she loved Guardians of the Galaxy, and was tickled when the movie name-dropped something she had appeared in.

ComicBook’s Chris Killian posed the question, and didn’t even get to finish it before Singer had thoughts. Using Guardians as an example, he asked whether she was happy to see Footloose come up in other pop cultural contexts.

“I really love that movie. I just thought it was beautifully done, and I loved when they referenced [Footloose],” Singer told ComicBook.com. “It just makes me proud that it’s in the zeitgeist that much.”

In Footloose, Bacon plays a Chicago teen who moves to a small town in the Midwest, where dancing is illegal. “Footloose laws” actually existed in parts of the U.S., with one in Arkansas being taken off the books as late as 2018 (although nobody had actually been arrested or fined for it in at least 20 years at the time). The movie was inspired by a similar in Elmore City, Oklahoma. That particular ordinance ended in March 1980, when the school board allowed students to organize a high school prom. In 2010, residents recreated the prom for its 30th anniversary, and kicked things off with Kenny Loggins’ famous Footloose title track.

The actor recently confirmed lore surrounding the movie, that he transfer student for a day, meeting and interacting with ’80s high school kids and selling them on…well, basically the character he would go on to play in the iconic ’80s movie.  

“I love it,” Bacon told Today in 2022. “I think it’s great. It’s like all of those things that you think ‘Oh, my gosh, is it ever going to go away?’ At a certain point, you have to embrace the beast.”

“It was a great gift to be part of that movie,” he added. “I certainly took it very seriously when I was doing it and I love that people will still come up and say that they just showed it to their kids.”

Footloose is available now for the first time ever on 4K Ultra HD 2024 from Paramount Home Entertainment.