[Update: See James Gunn's response below]

While Marvel Studios has a number of exciting films in development, from this fall’s Doctor Strange to the upcoming Black Panther, one of the most highly anticipated has to be Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Co-writer/director James Gunn’s first film was perhaps the studio’s most pleasant surprise since the first Iron Man, offering a unique spin on the superhero genre with plenty of heart and 80s nostalgia to spare. And with Gunn reprising his duties on the sequel, with Kurt Russell and The Night Manager’s Elizabeth Debicki added to the cast to boot, hopes are extremely high.

But now Gunn himself may be teasing a pretty huge reveal for Guardians of the Galaxy 2. It’s no secret that the first film was pretty much cut off from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe aside from Josh Brolin’s Thanos, and while we all expect the Guardians of the Galaxy to finally cross streams with the Earthbound Marvel heroes in the two-part Avengers: Infinity War, the characters have as of yet failed to acknowledge one another. If Gunn’s latest Instagram is to be taken as a reveal, that acknowledgement may finally come in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor.


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Image via Marvel

Indeed, Gunn’s set photo shows the filmmaker wielding Thor’s mighty hammer. Now it’s possible that this is simply a prop that shows up in the film somehow, or maybe it was just laying around the Atlanta set for some reason or another, but it would make a whole lot of sense for the Guardians’ first interaction with the known MCU heroes to involve the galaxy-traversing Thor. And with Thor: Ragnarok poised to be a space-set adventure between Thor and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, perhaps Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will do a tiny bit of stage-setting for the Taika Watiti-helmed Thor sequel.

So get excited, folks. Whether this means Thor actually does have a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 or not, the characters will be meeting sooner rather than later. The Gunn-helmed sequel opens in theaters on May 5, 2017, with Thor: Ragnarok following on November 3, 2017.

I'm starting to think this has nothing to being worthy. A photo posted by James Gunn (@jamesgunn) on

 


Update: Speculation is off! Maybe ... Gunn has now revealed that he was holding Thor's hammer just "because it was around." 

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/739097623504773121[/EMBED_TWITTER]
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