After vocally cameoing as a Kyln prisoner in Guardians of the Galaxy, Nathan Fillion was brought back for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to portray as actor Simon Williams in a number of faux movie posters. These posters were going to be on display in the background on an Earth-set scene where a Simon Williams film festival was being held, but alas, it was one of the scenes that didn't make the final cut. Gunn has dropped a few looks already on the characters Fillion's Williams "played" in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but now the Marvel blockbuster's director and writer has uploaded all the posters for Marvel fans online to enjoy.
First, we have The Toxic Janitor 2 as a clear parody of The Toxic Avenger (and its sequel), which was directed by Lloyd Kaufman, one of James Gunn's frequent collaborators. It doesn't look like Simon Williams has ever become Wonder Man in the MCU, but at least he's been able to play a superhero on the big screen, albeit a bizarre and oddly named one.
Next up on James Gunn's Facebook post is Nathan Fillion's Simon Williams starring in Oh, Rebecca, which is making fun of the Ryan Reynolds-led romantic comedy Definitely, Maybe. Was this another hit for the creative team behind Something's In The Air?
Following that is Dead Before Arrival, which is clearly inspired by Christopher Nolan's Inception. This Williams feature was directed by the same guy who helmed Haxan 2, and speaking of that movie...
Haxan 2's poster is based off the poster for the Daniel Radcliffe-led horror flick Horns, down to its witty tagline. However, while the Haxan 2 poster says that it's based off a novel by Jake Martin, there was a horror movie called Haxan released in the 1920s. So if you want, you can pretend this is a sequel to a remake of that silent movie.
Then we have Arkon, which presumably takes the place of Conan the Barbarian in the MCU. A few weeks ago, James Gunn posted a picture of Nathan Fillion dressed as Arkon pretending to pilot Peter Quill's spaceship.
Finally, we have the biopic Tony Stark, which is laid out the same way as 2015's Steve Jobs. I wonder what Iron Man thought of Williams' performance as him.
Even though these Simon Williams posters didn't appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, James Gunn still considers them to be canon, so maybe one day we'll see Fillion actually cameo as Williams, either as "himself" or in a clip of one of his roles. You can catch the Fillion-less Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in theaters now.
