James Gunn and Michael Rooker Pay Tribute to the Best Dad From Guardians of the Galaxy for Father’s Day

There might be dozens of fathers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there’s only one daddy — and Michael Rooker and James Gunn are both celebrating him on Father’s Day. Both members of the Guardians of the Galaxy team shared a gut-wrenching black and white photograph ofYondu Udonta (Rooker) with his Earth-shattering quote from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. You know the one — as the Ravager was sacrificing himself so that Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) could live, Udontu looked on and said, “He may have been your father, boy. But he wasn’t your Daddy.”

Tears. Tears everywhere.

As you know by now, Yondu is deader than dead as his ashes float among the cosmos. Shortly after Vol. 2 was released over three years ago, Gunn himself took to Facebook to remind the masses that Yondu is staying dead.

“Although it is always possible to see Yondu in flashback or prequel, I personally will never bring him back to life in present time because it would nullify his sacrifice and the love from father to son that affects me so much personally as well as others all around the world,” Gunn said during a fan Q&A. “One of the reasons that Yondu is the most popular character from the second film is BECAUSE of this sacrifice, and the idea of bringing him back in Vol. 3 or 4 or on the Yondu Netflix series because he sells a lot of Funko Pops horrifies and sickens me. As I said, I hate it. And I’ll never do it.”

He added, “I also mentioned that there are exceptions to most rules, and sometimes story structure doesn’t need to take place in one film – for instance, sometimes a reveal can happen later that was planned all along, and sometimes that reveal will work. The word “constantly” in my original tweet was important – if characters were occasionally revived in interesting ways that didn’t diminish the original death but actually improved the overall story, I wouldn’t care.”

Rooker’s Yondu can be seen both in Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, both of which are now streaming on Disney+.

What surprises do you think are in store for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Think it over and let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt!