James Gunn is surprised more people didn't notice a Guardian Of The Galaxy in The Suicide Squad

The Suicide Squad marks once-and-future Marvel Cinematic Universe director James Gunn’s first movie for rivals DC, but the film still includes plenty of MCU crossover. Before Idris Elba played Bloodsport for Gunn, he guarded the Bifröst as Heimdall in Thor and its sequels; Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love And Thunder director Taika Waititi plays The Suicide Squad’s Ratcatcher, appearing in flashbacks as Ratcatcher 2’s dad.

But there’s someone else from the MCU that fans may have missed in The Suicide Squad. In a new interview with Variety, James Gunn says “no one, not a single person” has brought up to him “that there’s a Guardian Of The Galaxy in The Suicide Squad.” For those who didn’t notice, in the scene where the members of Task Force X go to the seedy Corto Maltese bar La Gatita Amable, one of the dancers is played by Mantis herself, Pom Klementieff. Gunn, who’s been paying attention to what fans say about the movie on Twitter, says he’s only seen two tweets where people have spotted her. And Klementieff hasn’t had many people reach out to her about the cameo, either, according to Gunn: “I talked to Pom the other day—I’m like, have people been asking you? She’s like, yeah, a couple people. But she’s just not being recognized. I’m like, what is going on? I can’t believe it!”

Klementieff first played Mantis—who has empathic powers that let her sense and manipulate others’ emotions through touch—in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2. She appeared as the character in Infinity War and Endgame, and is set to reprise her role in Thor: Love And Thunder next year.

In the same interview, Gunn addressed the movie’s mediocre opening weekend box office debut, saying, “The Suicide Squad is made to be seen first and foremost on a big screen. I think it’s gonna work just fine on television. Listen, movies don’t last because they’re seen on the big screen,” he says. “Movies last because they’re seen on television. Jaws isn’t still a classic because people are watching it in theaters. I’ve never seen Jaws in a movie theater. It’s one of my favorite movies.”

With the Delta variant spreading globally at an overwhelming speed, it’s understandable that, given the option of watching it at home on HBO Max, many would rather do that. Gunn gets that too, saying that as much as he’d want his movies to be watched in theaters, it’s still not fully safe to do so. “We’ve still got COVID, because people won’t get vaccinated, which, you know, they should. Hopefully—hopefully—that will not be a big deal to us in a year. And if that’s the case, what’s going to happen? We don’t know. Nobody knows. I care, because I would rather have people be able to go to the movies. But also, if they don’t, I’m not going to go slit my wrists. I don’t care that much,” he explains.