Why Fans Are Flipping Out About Cut Character

June 13, 2024

Bad news, Simon Williams fans — it looks like this is one Marvel character that won’t be showing up in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 after all.

Nathan Fillion and Guardians writer/director James Gunn confirmed on social media that the comic book businessman turned supervillain turned Avenger turned actor wouldn’t be appearing in the second installment of the Marvel Studios franchise after all, despite Fillion playing the role for a brief period:

The Instagram post set the fan community ablaze, and Gunn took to Twitter to suggest that Williams — AKA Wonder Man — was never actually intended to show up in the finished movie anyway:

For the record, that was never a scene in the movie – that’s simply @NathanFillion clowning around on set. https://t.co/o3oRI3O3xw

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) April 21, 2017

. @NathanFillion was Simon Williams in some movie POSTERS in a scene cut from the movie. It was a way to have fun with one of my best pals. https://t.co/aueWcm88zb

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) April 21, 2017

As sad as Fillion’s absence might be, it’s somewhat in keeping with Simon Williams’ career in comic books. A failed supervillain who was presumed dead for years — when, actually, his body was in a transformative state, changing into his fully-powered form — Williams’ first tenure as an Avenger in the 1970s was marked by an inability to act because of a fear of being plunged back into his death-like state; by the time he got over that, he’d moved to Los Angeles to become a stuntman and actor. While out West in the 1980s, he helped found the West Coast Avengers, where his newfound ego proved to be troublesome for his teammates.

Turned out, however, his fear of dying — or almost dying, at least — was well-founded; he would be blown up while fighting aliens in the ‘90s, only to be resurrected by the Scarlet Witch some years later. Since then, his career has been beset by mental instability potential brought on by his own energy powers, despite which he’s served with the Avengers on two separate occasions and been absorbed into the body of former X-Men member Rogue seemingly permanently.

Simon Williams, in other words, can’t win for losing, which is what makes his near-brush with real-world cinematic fame feel par for the course for the character. Think of him as the Charlie Brown of the superhero set … and hope that he’ll get to show up on the big screen one day soon.

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