‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Director Fires Back at Fans Complaining About Kurt Russell ‘Spoiler’

“I would rather be in control of the announcement myself than have it come out on SpoilersRUs.com in a few weeks,” James Gunn says

guardians of the galaxy 2 ego
Marvel/Getty

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2” director James Gunn is taking whiny fans to task after they chastised him for revealing that Kurt Russell is playing Ego the Living Planet, better known as Star-Lord Peter Quill’s father, in the highly anticipated sequel.

In a Facebook post he titled “WHY THE IDENTITY OF STAR-LORD’S FATHER ISN’T A SPOILER,” the filmmaker explains, “A minority of folks who have questioned, and even been angry, that I and Marvel would reveal something so major months before the film comes out.”

The filmmaker said if it was up to him, he wouldn’t reveal anything about his movies to audiences before they saw them, but “the world is imperfect.” Also, trailers are kind of important for getting people to see the movie, in the first place.

“Firstly, we have to advertise our film. And it will be impossible to show you very much of ‘Vol. 2’ since Ego is very much a part of all of it. We just don’t have a way around it,” Gunn wrote.

“Secondly, there are journalists online who love giving you scoops about characters and plot twists in upcoming films,” he continued. “Ego is such a big part of the movie, this was going to come out soon, as much as we’ve tried to hide it…Frankly, I would rather be in control of the announcement myself than have it come out on SpoilersRUs.com in a few weeks.”

Gunn assured fans that knowing about Ego will not take away from the story.

“The story is not built to be a shocking twist in the same way Luke’s father was Darth, Soylent Green was people, Rosebud was a sled, or that that pretty woman from ‘Crying Game’ had a penis (I guess I should have said spoilers before all that),” he said. “Ego [is] the emotional center of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ‘from the beginning to the end, and is not a twist.”

At the “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2” Comic-Con panel, a clip aired exclusively for the Hall H crowd explained that Ego has the ability to create a human avatar that allows him to interact with humanoids.

It’s a big shift from Marvel’s canon. In the comics, Peter’s father is J’Son of Spartax, an alien who crash-landed on Earth and had a short relationship with Meredith Quill. Upon leaving, J’Son decided to erase Meredith’s memories of him, not knowing that she was pregnant.

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2” will open in theaters on May 5, 2017.

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