Actor Nico Santos has been confirmed to be in the cast for Marvel Studios' upcoming film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The MCU film recently wrapped production, with Santos being the latest post-production cast announcement.
Santos is best known for playing Oliver T'sien in Warner Bros.' hit romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians and the lovable sales associate Mateo Liwanag in the NBC sitcom Superstore. He has been nominated for two Critics' Choice Awards for his role on Superstore, and his more recent credits include the animated feature Wish Dragon and HBO Max animated series The Prince.
Deadline reports that Santos is just the latest cast member to be confirmed for the highly anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Deadline also recently revealed that Borat 2 actor Maria Bakalova and The Suicide Squad star Daniela Melchior were also cast in the film. Details around their roles are also undisclosed. The rest of the cast includes Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Sylvester Stallone, Karen Gillan, Elizabeth Debicki, Will Poulter and Chuk Iwuji. James Gunn has also previously teased a mysterious "unannounced actor," but that is unlikely to be Santos.
Written and directed by Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set to conclude the story set up by Gunn in his first two films. Plot details regarding the third film are sparse at the moment, but Gunn has confirmed that this will be his last Guardians of the Galaxy film and has stated that it will finish the story he set out to tell. The first two films followed a group of intergalactic criminals led by the half-human half-celestial Star-Lord (Pratt) as they team up to save the galaxy. While the team is primarily featured in their solo films, they have also appeared in other MCU projects, including Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Several members of the team are also set to appear in director Taikia Watitti's upcoming Marvel Studios film Thor: Love and Thunder alongside Chris Hemsworth's Thor and Natalie Portman's Jane Foster.
While the plot for the third film is unknown at this time, it will be interesting to see what Gunn has in store for the team after the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. In those films, team member Gamora (Saldana) was killed by her adoptive father Thanos (Josh Brolin). However, unlike the trillions of people who were "blipped' by Thanos, Gamora was actually killed, or at least that version of her. A past Gamora was brought to the present by Thanos in Endgame, so now there is a version of Gamora running around the galaxy but with no memory of the first two Guardians of the Galaxy films. This puts the character and the rest of the team in a very odd position and it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled to premiere in theaters on May 5th, 2023.
Source: Deadline