James Gunn is no stranger to burying Easter Eggs deep into his work, with fans still trying to figure out the legendary background artifact from his first Guardians of the Galaxy seven years after the movie was first released. The filmmaker clearly loves to see people dig through each frame looking for hidden references to comic book lore, something that’s continued into his DCEU tenure with The Suicide Squad.
It features more than a few nods and winks to the team’s history on the printed page, but Gunn has voiced his surprise that nobody seems to have mentioned the cameo appearance from one of his Guardians stars. In a new interview, he opened up about how he initially wanted Dave Bautista in the movie, before going to to reveal that he’s in disbelief that none of the reviews he’s read picked up on the guest spot from the actor’s Marvel Cinematic Universe teammate, which we’ll dive into below just to give you a spoiler warning.
“Well, I mean people know I almost cast Dave in a role and he couldn’t do it, so he didn’t. Other than that, well, there might be a Guardian somewhere in the film that no one has seen yet and I’m so surprised by… I’ve gotten a hundred reviews from this movie and I’m just astounded.”
Around the midpoint of The Suicide Squad, several members of the team mount a mission to kidnap Peter Capaldi’s Thinker to help them infiltrate the Jotunheim facility on Corto Maltese. Idris Elba’s Bloodsport, Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag, John Cena’s Peacemaker, David Dastmalchian’s Polka Dot Man and Daniela Melchior’s Ratcatcher 2 get more than a little drunk, but they still get the job done.
There’s some entertainment in the bar where the antiheroes, villains, thieves and murderers are kicking back, and the main performer on the stage is Pom Klementieff, Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Mantis. It’s not a large or particularly showy role, which is why most folks appear to have missed it, but it just goes to show that Gunn isn’t above reuniting with his regular troupe of cast members not called Michael Rooker.