James Gunn Will Sneak This Alien Species Into Guardians Of The Galaxy 2

Thanks to the power of the Internet, we’ll be seeing at least one Sneeper in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Now, what’s a Sneeper, you ask? It’s an alien race of the Marvel comics universe whose name in Icelandic means, well, something mainstream audiences might get all flustered over. But director-writer James Gunn posted a special message on Facebook revealing the events that led to the victory on the Sneeper front.

Gunn originally posted a comic strip of the Sneeper race to Facebook back in September. He remarked that he loves using actual names from the comics because it makes watching these Marvel films more fun, but he has to run each name he wants to use through the Marvel legal department. When he came across the Sneeper race and passed it through the powers that be, they returned with a statement that read in part,

So, that was that…or so we thought. Now, according to this new Facebook post from Gunn, his fans complained so much about it on social media that Marvel revisited the idea and decided that it might not be so bad to include the name in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Gunn writes that we should expect at least one Sneeper in the film, which is scheduled for release on May 5, 2017.

Read Gunn’s full statement below.

As depicted in the comics, the Sneepers hail from a planet called Sneep and were initially far more technologically advanced than the humans of Earth. They once wanted to conquer Earth, as they did other planets near their home world, but it wasn’t the easiest to travel back and forth. Because the cavemen they observed were so primitive, they decided to keep an eye on them for amusement. The rise of the Roman Empire, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolutions tipped them off to humanity’s potential to advance. At one time, the Sneepers feared humans would develop powerful enough tech to take over their planet, but they were put at ease when they saw the race turning their nuclear weapons against each other.

But, still, the best part of all of this is the phrase, "Sneepers from the planet Sneep." The Icelandic definition is just icing on the cake.

Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Vin Diesel (Groot), and Bradley Cooper (Rocket) are all expected to return as the intergalactic band of misfits that saved the universe from the Infinity Stone-fueled Ronan. We still don’t know very much about the story for the sequel, though we know it’ll further explore the identity of Star-Lord’s dad, and Bautista told Cinema Blend that the plan is to dive deeper into these characters’ backstories.