To some, Kevin Bacon is a cherished actor who skyrocketed to worldwide fame in the 1980s and continues to appear in all sorts of movies and TV shows. To the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Peter Quill, he’s even more important. Because Quill was taken from Earth at a young age, he had a narrow window of pop culture exposure, resulting in Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, speaking about Bacon with reverence in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Infinity War.
Given how popular the Marvel movies are, it’s no surprise that Kevin Bacon has caught these references to him. Here’s what he recently had to say about those while plugging his new movie, You Should Have Left:
Well, I mean, there was the mention in Guardians which I thought was pretty amazing. I didn't really know anything about it and then I went and sat in the movie theater and somebody just said to me, 'Have you seen that movie yet?' I said, 'No, I'm going but I haven't seen it yet.' I'm sitting in the movie theater and I'm thinking, 'Wow, that's some shout out!’
It’s a high honor indeed. In case you need a refresher, during Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill informed Gamora about the “legend” of Footloose, which saw the hero, Kevin Bacon, teaching an entire city of “people with sticks up their butts” that dancing was great. And dancing proved to be a useful distraction later in the movie against the Power Stone-enhanced Ronan the Accuser.
Then in Avengers: Infinity War, Drax mentioned the “dance-off to save the universe” in front of Iron Man and Spider-Man, resulting in the latter questioning if this was like what went down in Footloose. When Star-Lord answered in the affirmative and asked if it was “still the greatest movie in history,” Spidey tritely responded, “It never was.” Maybe not, Peter Parker, but it’s definitely a classic.
All-in-all, Kevin Bacon summarized the shoutouts to him in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Infinity War as “cool” while speaking with Comicbook.com. Considering how well-versed Peter Quill is in ‘80s pop culture (well, everything up until 1988, the year that Yondu snatched him up), it makes sense that he would be so enamored Bacon, though he’s nonetheless missed out on a large chunk of the actor’s filmography, including Tremors, Flatliners, A Few Good Men and Apollo 13.
It’s also worth mentioning that while Kevin Bacon hasn’t set foot in the MCU yet, he has worked with director James Gunn on the 2010 superhero comedy Super, which co-starred Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page. Bacon also has some comic book adaptation experience under his belt playing Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class. So if there comes a time when he decides to join the MCU, assuming he doesn’t just cameo as himself, it’d be interesting what character he’d bring to life.
As for the big screen Guardians of the Galaxy, we last saw at the end of Avengers: Endgame them leaving Earth with Thor and heading off to parts unknown. According to Groot’s voice actor, Vin Diesel, some, if not all of the Guardians will appear in Thor: Love and Thunder, but these characters will point the spotlight back firmly on themselves for Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3.
When will the threequel come out? That’s hard to say, but keep checking with CinemaBlend for any news concerning a release date and other updates on Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3’s progress. For now, you can learn what other Marvel movies are on the way with our handy guide.
