"J'son in it."
On the front page of my notes from my visit to the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 set in April 2016, those words are written and underlined. I still remember the moment our group of press arrived on set, where we were brought to a conference room lined with concept art from the film. While we were waiting for interviews with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and co-producer Jonathon Schwartz, we scoured the art for any Easter eggs and clues we could find at the plot of the movie. There in the center of it was the biggest secret of all, seemingly revealed: the word "J'son," written above concept art of a new environment. Of course, I know now this was all a ruse.
A new look at Chris Pratt as Peter Quill and Kurt Russell as Ego the Living Planet in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Ever since Guardians of the Galaxy was released, the question of "who is Star-Lord's father?" was a top priority in most fans' -- and therefore reporters' -- minds. When it was revealed that Kurt Russell would be playing the then-unannounced character in Vol. 2, speculation ran rampant, with Star-Lord Sr. rumored to be everyone from Mar-Vell to J'son. And though director James Gunn denied that Russell was playing either of those, the studio went to especially great lengths to keep the mystery a mystery until they were ready to reveal the identity.
That's why it seemed like such a coup to find the term "J'son" seemingly confirming who Russell's character was, and so early on in the visit too. Throughout the rest of our day on set, we kept dropping the name "J'son" casually into our interviews with the cast -- including Russell -- and none of them rebuked it, despite director James Gunn previously stating that J'Son would not be the father of Peter Quill. The name "J'son" was even on the back of one of the director's chairs used by the production. When we mentioned seeing the name in the concept art to Feige, he responded with a laugh, "You know, this room was scrubbed before you guys came in." A lapse in Marvel's notoriously thorough security? That should have been our first clue "J'son" was a con.
In retrospect, all the evidence was there that the brilliant minds of Marvel were playing a big trick on us. Of course, we know now that Star-Lord's father is actually Ego the Living Planet, which was revealed months after our visit to set and months before the embargo of said visit was up. We even caught our first look at Russell as Ego in the recently released trailer. Gunn even told us this situation would likely happen (though we didn't quite believe him at the time), admitting to the gathered press of the "J'son" red herring: "Think we aren't prepared for you guys? Think anything we did today is real? ... I call him J'son all the time. That's what we do. But I also want to make clear -- here's the thing that gets stuck with -- he isn't J'son. He isn't named J'son in the movie."
So why the bait-and-switch? Because Marvel, especially this late in the game, is all about preserving secrets and controlling the narrative -- especially from journalists who have a tendency to look for those secrets before Marvel is ready to give them up. Even though I knew that Marvel security was tight, I never had experienced anything like this first-hand or heard of anything happening to this level. That's why even all these months later, this trick on set is one of the most interesting elements of what we learned (or didn't learn) about Russell's role on set.
Ego the Living Planet character poster from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
But even with the high level of secrecy, Gunn was adamant that the fact Star-Lord's father is Ego the Living Planet isn't meant to be a huge twist or game-changing revelation. He has his own character poster with his name on it, for goodness' sake. "We'll probably all know who the father is by the time this movie comes out, because the movie really isn't about that," Gunn said. "It's not about this big reveal of who the father is. It really is about the story between the different characters, and so it's not about that reveal. It's not about there's this big shock moment. ... It happens pretty close to the beginning of the film. It's not something we reveal at the end of the film. So it's something that'll come out eventually. I think it's just we want to choose the time when that comes out. And hopefully we'll be able to do that."
They did end up doing the reveal on their own terms -- and even managed to playfully dupe some set visit reporters in the process -- and now we know definitively going into the movie that it's Ego, not J'son, who is Peter Quill's larger-than-life father. But who is he, how did he meet Peter's mother and what are his motivations? Those are the big questions going forward, and the ones that Kurt Russell teased during our trip to set.
Continue onto Page 2 for selections from our set visit interview with Russell, where he talks about playing Star-Lord's father and what it's like joining the MCU.
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