David Bowie could have had a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy 2

“Just a very short while ago Kevin Feige and I were talking about a cameo role in Guardians Vol. 2, and he brought up Bowie’s name. I told him nothing in the world would make me happier, but I heard from common friends he wasn’t doing well,” he explained in a Facebook tribute to the pop star. “We heard back that he was okay and it could potentially happen.”

Unfortunately, this was not to be, but Gunn made clear just how much Bowie meant to him, and how much he influenced Guardians of the Galaxy.

“We featured 'Moonage Daydream' in Guardians, but I always thought the album's character was felt far beyond that, in the aesthetics, in the integral and seemingly-natural linking in popular culture of '70s rock and space opera,” the director said.

“It was the music that was playing the night I hit bottom on alcohol and drugs as a very young person. I got sober that night, and those songs - 'TVC15', 'Star', 'Suffragette City' - are now deeply embedded in my psyche. They all have a frightening, almost-religious context in my personal history.”