The following contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 screened for critics last night and that means that at least a few people out there have answers to all our pressing questions, including exactly who Sylvester Stallone is playing in the film. The actor's role had been kept under wraps and while we had a few different rumors about what the role would ultimately be, it turns out that most of the rumors were true. Stallone will play a Ravager named Stakar. According to production notes that were handed out at the screening...
A lifelong respected Ravager, Stakar isn't fond of Yondu. Sylvester Stallone offers the character's backstory: 'Stakar had banished Yondu many years earlier for doing something wrong and he finally sees him almost twenty years later at this particular establishment called the Iron Lotus where all of the Ravagers go to blow off steam. And then we have a confrontation which is pretty intense and it's kind of a father/son type of thing and now he's going to have to pay the piper. His karma has come back ten-fold.'
The earliest rumors about who Sylvester Stallone would be playing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had him pegged as playing a member of the Ravagers. Recent information included the fact that his name was Stakar and while that led people to wonder if Stallone would be playing the comic book character known as Starhawk, due to the fact that Stakar was the character's given name, it appears that part was pure conjecture, unless there's more detail that's not given in the production notes that were handed out at the critics screening, where our own Eric Eisenberg was in attendance. If there's more he's not talking. The feeling was that if Stallone was, in fact, playing Starhawk than the role might not be the simply cameo that it was rumored to be, but based on this information it appears that Stallone only has the one scene.
Of course, this information does put the role into a bit different perspective as the impression we had was that Stallone's character, as a Ravager, would be working with Yondu, and that's apparently not the case. Instead, we've learned that Yondu's Ravager crew is something of an offshoot that he likely built up after Stallone's character kicked him out. The new movie is clearly looking to give us some backstory on Yondu through this scene, which will likely also give us some insight into his relationship with Peter Quill, who have their own father/son relationship.
Based on the early reviews it seems that everything about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is looking good. The rest of us will have to wait until May 5 to see what happens when Stakar and Yondu meet again.
