Sylvester Stallone Confirms Something We Suspected All Along About Guardians Of The Galaxy 3

Following the success of 2014's "Guardians of the Galaxy," it didn't take long for director James Gunn and Marvel Studios to begin collaboration on a sequel. By the time 2017 rolled around, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" was on the big screen, bringing with it everyone's favorite ragtag group of cosmic heroes. However, alongside the core team of Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel), and Drax (Dave Bautista), as well as a few other familiar faces, some newbies also joined the "GotG" franchise.

The most prominent additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe via "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" were Ego (Kurt Russell) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff), but they were far from alone. One of the most shocking inclusions was Stakar Ogord, also known as Starhawk, played by legendary actor Sylvester Stallone. The grizzled Ravager captain only appeared in a handful of scenes — most notably Yondu's (Michael Rooker) emotional funeral toward the end of the film — and didn't wind up dead. Therefore, MCU fans are curious as to whether or not Starhawk will come back for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

With the threequel just beginning production at the time of this writing, Sly gave everyone the update on his status that they've been waiting for.

On November 12, 2021, instead of relaxing after the release of "Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago – The Ultimate Directors Cut"  the day before, Sylvester Stallone got to work on his next project. He posted a couple of videos of himself to Instagram where he's sitting inside of a room with walls covered with lights and high-tech cameras. He explains that this setup photographs every angle of his face so that should he be absent from the set on a given day, the crew can use that reference material to duplicate his natural expressions digitally. 

As he so casually mentions, he's undergoing this process for the next "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie.

With that, it sounds like Starhawk is coming back to the MCU on May 23, 2023 — unless he shows up for the "Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" first. As is the case with pretty much everything about the film currently, how he'll factor into the story and how much time he'll spend on screen remain a mystery. Nevertheless, confirmation that Sylvester Stallone is returning for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" will surely have fans excited.