The One Cameo Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Is Sorely Missing
Contains spoilers for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"
A trilogy can only end once, and as "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" shows, the third movie can be a goldmine of cameos and familiar faces. With a series that's featured as many characters as James Gunn's Marvel Cinematic Universe space opera, it's no surprise that the cameo list gets pretty crowded in the conclusion. From Howard the Duck (Seth Green) and Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone) to the brief return of Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), there's a lot to notice in the movie. Even Yondu (Michael Rooker) makes a brief appearance as a vision that acts as Kraglin's (Sean Gunn) arrow control tutor.
Of course, there's no time to dwell on every single character the Guardians have come across over the years. The film features by far the biggest cast in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" series so far and has to juggle the introduction of several new characters with the conclusions of several major character arcs, so it's frankly admirable that "Vol. 3" manages to include as many known entities as it does.
Despite the abundance of both familiar figures and famous faces under various prosthetics, there are two major players who we know are still alive, yet don't make a physical appearance. One of them is Taneleer "The Collector" Tivan (Benicio del Toro), who sold Knowhere to the Guardians at some point before "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," and therefore has a perfect excuse to stay out of Dodge. On the other hand, the other person is a particularly glaring omission from the movie's extensive list of cameos: Despite his close connection to the Guardians in general and Rocket (Bradley Cooper) in particular, Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) is nowhere to be found.
Thor has a strong, if strained connection to the Guardians of the Galaxy
There are several good reasons for Thor to make a quick cameo in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." He used to travel with the Guardians, and while he seems to have unwittingly annoyed most of them to the point of barely getting a nod when he finally made his exit, let's be honest — that's every Guardian's relationship with over half of their team most of the time. He's also reasonably tight with the movie's clearest main character and current Guardians team leader Rocket, who took a liking to the Asgardian after the Thunder God treated him with respect. What's more, Thor is currently in the guarding business himself, zooming around with foster daughter Love (India Rose Hemsworth) to fight evil in faraway locations.
Because of all this, a Thor cameo wouldn't have been just welcome — it would have been natural. He could've popped up as a brief background character, or even confusedly run into the new Guardians team in a jokey stinger that would've explained why he wasn't helping out in the movie proper. He could've auditioned for Rocket's team and been turned down. The possibilities were endless, yet the only time we see the God of Thunder is a quick pic during the end credits. Hey, maybe the Guardians really do dislike the guy.
In all fairness, the most likely reason for Thor's omission is probably the simple fact that James Gunn never wanted to use Thor in the movie, and was grateful that Taika Waititi closed the book on the connection in "Thor: Love and Thunder." Since he was never on board with the Thor-Guardians mashup, it was hardly likely that Gunn was keen to give the Asgardian too much space in the conclusion of his trilogy. Still, it could have been nice to see the big guy saying his farewells to the classic lineup of the MCU's premier ragtag space team.