All Guardians characters recast (Image via Sportskeeda)

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 cast: 5 MCU actors recast in new roles

Modified May 13, 2023 10:55 IST

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was James Gunn’s final MCU outing and he treated it as a celebration by inviting many of his friends and members of his family to cameo in the film. So far, we’ve had plenty of actors play multiple roles in the MCU. The list has only grown with Gunn's latest film.

Benedict Cumberbatch is known for playing Doctor Strange and his multiple variants. But he also portrayed Dormammu in the first Doctor Strange movie. Damion Poitier was Thanos in The Avengers, and then one of Crossbones' mercenaries in Captain America: Civil War.

Similarly, many actors who have played certain MCU characters in the past were also a part of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The following list features 5 actors recast in new Guardians 3 roles.

Nathan Fillion and all the other actors recast in new MCU roles in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Tara Strong as Mainframe

Tara Strong as Miss Minutes and Mainframe (Image via Marvel)

Tara Strong is a voiceover specialist who made her MCU debut as Miss Minutes in Loki. She is set to reprise her role in Loki season 2.

But before that, she showed up at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 world premiere and surprised everyone. She didn’t reveal who her character was. But as the movie hit theaters, her role was confirmed to be Mainframe.

In a recently held “Yes&No” Q&A session by James Gunn, he answered several questions that the fans had about Guardians 3. One fan asked him whether Mainframe was recast because Miley Cyrus was "not able to reprise her role from Guardians 2" and Gunn simply replied, “Yes!”

Nathan Fillion as Master Karja

Nathan Fillion's Master Karja (Image via Marvel)

Nathan Fillion starred in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as Master Karja, an authoritative guard that showed up at the Orgoscope. At the Guardians 3 World Premiere, Fillion described his character’s look as a “keloid scar” or perhaps a big rotten basket of bread, because of the fluffy suit he had to wear.

Master Karja ran into the Guardians when they infiltrated the OrgoCorp HQ to steal Rocket’s files. But his recent MCU appearance wasn’t his first, as he also had different roles in the last two Guardians movies.

Nathan Fillion's Guardians of the Galaxy cameos (Image via Marvel)

After working with Gunn on Slither, Fillion has had roles in almost every James Gunn movie. We saw him as a blue prison alien on the Kyln in Guardians Vol. 1. Following that, he also shot cameos as Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, in Vol. 2, but his scenes were deleted.

Nathan Fillion also appeared in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad as TDK.

Fans will also be interested to know that Marvel has cast Yahya Abdul Mateen-II as Simon Williams in the upcoming Wonder Man series.

Linda Cardellini as Lylla the Otter

Linda Cardellini as Laura and Lylla (Image via Marvel)

Linda Cardellini has already appeared in three MCU projects as Clint Barton’s wife Laura Barton. We first saw her in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Following that, she got two scenes in Avengers: Endgame.

Then, she got a slightly bigger role in Hawkeye, which revealed that she was MCU’s Mockingbird.

James Gunn

@JamesGunn

This is the very first day of shooting #GotGVol3. The VFX process was so intense we had to shoot all of the motion capture & camera capture first because it would take so long to finish. It was a painstaking process, but this cast was extraordinary & the editors & I knew we had… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

But James Gunn brought her in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to voice Rocket’s love interest and best friend in the comics, Lylla. She also appeared on the first day of filming to do the motion capture for Lylla.

Mikaela Hoover as Floor

Mikaela Hoover as Nova Prime’s assistant (Image via Marvel)

Mikaela Hoover was first seen in the original Guardians of the Galaxy as the assistant of Glenn Close’s Irani Rael/Nova Prime.

Unlike Linda Cardellini’s recurring character, Hoover’s cameo in Vol. 1 was very small. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, she signed up to voice the rabbit with cybernetic spider limbs, Floor.

James Gunn

@JamesGunn

Mikaela Hoover is the lovely and wonderful Floor. #GotGVol3

She was another animal from Batch 89 that the High Evolutionary experimented upon. While her friends were naming themselves, she named herself Floor, because she was lying on the floor. Her character has been inspired by Blackjack O'Hare, an enhanced rabbit who serves as a mercenary and the leader of the Black Bunny Brigade in the comics.

She also played an office assistant in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad.

Judy Greer as War Pig

Judy Greer as War Pig (Image via Marvel)

We’ve seen Judy Greer (Judith Therese Evans) in multiple sitcoms, including Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. But she is also known for her supporting role as the ex-wife of Scott Lang, Maggie. She appeared in the first Ant-Man movie and returned in Ant-Man and the Wasp. But she was nowhere to be seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

However, she returned in a different MCU movie in 2023 as James Gunn signed her on to voice War Pig in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Her new MCU character was a cyborg pig who worked for the High Evolutionary and fought the likes of Gamora and Adam Warlock.

Edited by
Upasya Bhowal