Nathan Fillion is no stranger to genre work, and that includes the world of superheroes. Over at DC Comics, he's voiced Hal Jordan, a.k.a. Green Lantern, numerous times, but the former Castle star also has a foot in Marvel. After voicing a monstrous alien prisoner in Guardians of the Galaxy, Fillion was set to show his face in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Well, it turns out that his cameo in the movie has been cut, but not wanting to leave fans empty-handed, the actor was generous to provide a photo of him in character, and it is glorious!
After looking at this photo for literally a minute, the only way I can describe Nathan Fillion's above look is Space Conan the Barbarian. All that's missing from this scene is a laser sword sitting next to him. Sadly, you won't get to see Fillion in this costume during Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's theatrical release. Fillion didn't provide any context in his Instagram post for what the hell is happening in this photo, but thanks to some unofficial information, we can put some of the pieces together.
When Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was shooting in Atlanta, Georgia last year, unofficial photos came out showing movie posters with Nathan Fillion's face on all of them, one of which was for a Tony Stark movie done in the style of Steve Jobs. Near these posters was a marquee saying that the theater was hosting a Simon Williams film festival. For casual Marvel fans out there, Simon Williams is also known as the superhero (and occasional villain) Wonder Man. Looking back at these photos, one of these posters was for a fantasy movie called Arkon, and Fillion's character there was dressed similarly to how he looks above.
So rather than be yet another superhero thrown into the MCU, it seems clear now that Nathan Fillion's Simon Williams is a famous actor, and presumably this cut cameo of his was catching a snippet of his Arkon performance. In the grand scheme of things, Williams' appearance is hardly crucial to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's story, but it still would have been fun to see Fillion hamming it up in that outfit. At lest the actor can take comfort knowing that this cameo wasn't the only thing excised from the movie. For instance, director James Gunn revealed that a scene showing Peter Quill's grandfather that contained a lot of Easter Eggs was left on the cutting room floor. Maybe Grandpa Quill was watching Arkon during that scene.
Despite lacking Nathan Fillion with long hair and armor, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will still be hitting theaters on May 5.
