After everyone’s favorite spacefaring adventurers were seen wearing a collection of multi-colored space suits in the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, some fans thought it was a rather sus nod to the viral whodunnit video game hit Among Us.
So is writer-director James Gunn an Among Us fan, or merely an imposter? Luckily, he’s now responding to the rumor on Twitter. When one fan straight-up asked him if the space suits were an Among Us reference, Gunn replied simply, “No.”
What’s even more interesting than Gunn’s reply is the photo he shared alongside it, which elucidates the true origin of the homage. Gunn shared an image of a trio of space suits — red, yellow, and blue — which cinephiles will immediately recognize as some of the costumes from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Another scene from the trailer featured a character on a spinning zero gravity cylindrical treadmill, with the camera rotating along with it, in another clear reference to 2001.
We’re frankly happy to hear that a classy reference like 2001 is in the film, rather than another saccharine pop culture meme of the moment. Letitia Wright’s Shuri exclaiming “What are those?!” and Zachary Levi doing the Fortnite floss dance in Black Panther and Shazam!, respectively, are just a couple of examples of when viral memes completely took us out of the movie.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re big Among Us fans ourselves. In fact, it would be great to see a cinematic adaptation one day in the vein of John Carpenter’s The Thing. However, when it comes to pop culture references shoe-horned into Marvel movies, Thor: Love and Thunder gave us enough screaming goat material for three lifetimes.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters on May 5, 2023