Kurt Russell on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and James Gunn

Kurt Russell is currently doing press for Deepwater Horizon, the story of the BP oil rig disaster. It’s a dark film, but he’s got one coming up that’s a lot lighter. Russell is playing Ego the Living Planet in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It’s been reported that this is a significant role in the film, especially for one particular character. If you’re not familiar with the character from the comics, Ego the Living Planet is exactly what the name implies; a sentient planet who hails from The Black Galaxy. The character was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and first appeared in “Thor” #132 in 1966.

Russell’s role was revealed to a surprised audience at Marvel‘s presentation at San Diego Comic-Con this summer during a teaser trailer. What follows isn’t a spoiler for most fans, but if you don’t want to know why this role is so significant, just scroll down to the video, which is spoiler-free.

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As you may recall, in Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter “Star-Lord” Quill’s (Chris Pratt) father was unknown and merely referred to as “an angel made of light.” It’s been revealed that Ego the Living Planet is actually Peter’s papa, which might explain his ability not to die a horrible death while grasping an Infinity Stone.

We recently sat down with Russell to chat about Deepwater Horizon but couldn’t leave without asking him about playing a planet. He told us all about how much fun this role was to play (and how great the character name is), as well as talking quite a bit about how talented Gunn is. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 also stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan and Sylvester Stallone and will hit theaters on May 5, 2017.

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