Writer/director James Gunn wanted David Bowie to make a cameo appearance in his Marvel movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 — and now Gunn has revealed what that role would have been.

As Gunn told fans during the days after Bowie's death in January 2016, the idea of casting him in a cameo was first floated by Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige — and although Bowie was apparently amenable to the idea, talks were still in their early stages when he died.

The subject came up during Gunn's recent Facebook Q&A about the film, and he offered some additional details regarding what he wanted Bowie to do. "I did talk to David Bowie’s people about him having a cameo," he told viewers. "It would have been as one of the Ravagers, along with Michelle Yeoh and Ving Rhames and Sylvester Stallone and Michael Rosenbaum. But, unfortunately, David Bowie passed away."

Bowie's inscrutable cool and strong sense of visual style made him a frequent source of inspiration for comics artists throughout his career — and Marvel adapted his Labyrinth film into a comic in the '80s — so a Guardians cameo would have been perfectly fitting, and the idea of seeing him share screen time with Stallone is wonderfully off the wall.

Alas, it wasn't to be. But not even death could keep Bowie from making an appearance on the Twin Peaks revival currently airing on Showtime: using footage from the show's big-screen outing Fire Walk With Me, creator David Lynch crafted a surprise Bowie cameo a couple of weeks ago.

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