James Gunn responds to casting Kevin Bacon in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special despite his past X-Men: First Class role.

Speaking to Variety about the Marvel Special Presentation for Disney+, Gunn explained that Bacon's villainous performance as Sebastian Shaw in 2011's First Class was not a factor in casting the actor as himself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "One of the things that [Marvel Studios President and Chief Creative Officer] Kevin Feige has really impressed upon me in running the MCU is that what matters most is the project right in front of him," Gunn said. "You may have a plan about how you want to do something down the road, but if it screws up the thing right in front of you, then it doesn’t work.

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He continued, "The best thing for the holiday special is Kevin Bacon, and if that means that Kevin Bacon is a different character later on in the MCU, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not real. None of this is real. He was the perfect person to cast as Kevin Bacon. If we had cast John Schneider as Kevin Bacon, it wouldn’t have worked as well."

Starring Kevin Bacon as Kevin Bacon

Bacon starred in X-Men: First Class as Shaw, the Nazi mutant scientist-turned-leader of the Hellfire Club, who murdered the mother of Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto as a boy when he refused to manifest his magnetic powers. In turn, Shaw ultimately met a violent end at the hands of the powerful mutant who adopted his signature helmet. In a July interview, Bacon expressed interest in reprising the role for a future project in the MCU through the multiverse. "I was in one side of the Marvel Universe," Bacon said. "Do I still have an opportunity to get into the other side? It's a multiverse, right? I love that stuff."

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The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is not the first time that Gunn and Bacon have collaborated on a superhero project. In 2010, Bacon starred as the main antagonist in Gunn's dark superhero comedy Super. Gunn incorporated the actor into his work with Marvel Studios for the Guardians of the Galaxy film franchise, making Bacon's role in 1984's Footloose Star-Lord's favorite hero on Earth.

In paying tribute to the actor, Gunn incorporated Bacon's star-making role in Footloose as Star-Lord's greatest hero on earth. The running gag now pays off as a major storyline in the holiday special and Bacon will show off his musical prowess in the special with his own musical number. "I love to sing, I love to play, James sent me that song and I thought it was a really cool song," Bacon said. "It's very hard to come up with a new idea for a Christmas song but The Old '97s cut this really cool Christmas song and I got to sing it with them, they're actually in the band in alien make-up, so I had nothing but fun."

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is now streaming on Disney+.

Source: Variety