There’s no doubt that the most overall successful (critics and box office) movie of 2014 was James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. For being such an unknown property, it kicked straight ass all over the place – it my eyes it was the most fun and entertaining movie of this year, the reason why we go to the movies. Back in July, just a week before its released, a sequel was announced by Marvel and James Gunn, only proving their confidence in this franchise. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 isn’t out until 2017, but Director James Gunn is already working on it – check out this awesome image James Gunn posted.

For those of you who have seen the movie, (I recommend anyone who hasn’t seen it to stop reading now) but for everyone who has, we know that the sequel’s story will include the introduction of Peter Quill aka Star-Lord’s father. From those last few words in the movie, Papa Star-Lord is one big, bad, and prominent part in this universe the Guardians are in.

Who could it be? From comic mythology, readers know it’s J’son of Spartax, the Emperor of the Spartoi Empire and member of the Galactic Council. So far, Marvel’s Cinematic Universe has stayed true to the comics as much as they can, some things do have to be changed to make things work. For this situation, if Quill’s father turns out to be J’son, it opens up a HUGE part of the Marvel Universe, twice as much as what Guardians opened up. There have been theories on top of theories for who his father really is, only a few really know that question. One is Director James Gunn, who is now having some pretty cool fun with the situation. Gunn posted an image, that you can see below, giving us some insight to who Star-Lord’s father could be.

This is the exact kind of awesomeness that is James Gunn, and why he is the perfect fit to direct this franchise. Now of course, most of these won’t end up being Father Quill, but could you image? As you can see, J’son is one there, but two names really stick out to me. First is Tony Stark from the Future. More than likely this won’t happen, but what IF? This could be a great way to introduce time travel into the MCU, and also connect the Avengers to the Guardians for a future/possible/maybe crossover. Second is Martinex, a member of the Guardians from the 31st Century. Again, this could be another great way to introduce time travel if they stick to his origins, as well as introducing a new, interesting, and pretty cool character. After all, James Gunn has said they we will be seeing a new character, possibly even two in the sequel.

It’s also a great nod to what just happened over at Sony and the cancellation of their comedy The Interview. The Interview is about the characters of Seth Rogen and James Franco having an ‘interview’ with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, we should all be able to see how that can end up bad. Instead of just having his name on there, Gunn crossed the name out and wrote ‘nope’, which is just fun on so many levels.

For now, this could be just all fun and games for Mr. Gunn as he pens the sequel. But who knows, maybe one of these names other than J’son (Tony Stark? Martinex? Adam Warlock?) will end up being Quill’s dad. I’m just excited to see this relationship possibly play out on screen, it’ a fascinating part of the comics.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has a May 5th, 2017 release date.