Happy David Hasselhoff Month! Actor-Singer Is Having a Moment With ‘Guardians 2’ and ‘Baywatch’ (Spoilers!)
(Warning: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 spoilers below.)
We all knew David Hasselhoff was going to show up in some capacity in the upcoming Baywatch movie. Box-office superstar/Instagram influencer Dwayne Johnson revealed as much when he shared a photo of the two of them on set last year, and the Hoff later dished that he’s playing the Rock’s lifeguarding mentor. (Other alums of the shirt-averse ’90s TV show, including Pamela Anderson, are expected to appear as well.)
But it turns out you don’t have to wait until Baywatch‘s May 25 release to catch Hasselhoff in his first screen role since Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens. [Ed. note: Not made up.]
The star who once helped celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall makes a very memorable cameo in Marvel’s nostalgia-soaked Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, now in theaters.
Peter Quill, aka intergalactic crimefighter Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), is once again exercising creative license with pop-culture references from his formative years on Earth, especially in conversation with his Zen-Whoberian crush Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who seems to have to little interest in understanding his explanation of the “Sam and Diane Paradox.”
One of the key subplots in Guardians 2 involves Peter’s introduction to his birth father, the celestial being Ego (Kurt Russell). Early in the film, Peter explains that growing up without a dad, he always idolized Michael Knight, the KITT-driving hero of the 1980s sensation Knight Rider played by Hasselfhoff. He even carried a photo of Knight around in his wallet, pretending it was his father.
It’s a setup ripe for a callback, and sure enough, writer-director James Gunn figures out a way to bring Hasselhoff into the picture during the film’s dizzying climax when, after a series of revelations, Ego briefly transforms into Sir Hoff himself.
James Gunn and yours truly saying better watch this movie!! pic.twitter.com/X1ylxNJB70
— David Hasselhoff (@DavidHasselhoff) April 20, 2017
The extent of the film’s Hasselhoff obsession doesn’t stop there. Gunn also enlisted the huge-in-Germany singer for a track (the Sneepers’ “Guardians Inferno,” written by James Gunn) on the film’s official soundtrack, Awesome Mixtape Vol. 2, which Hoff can be heard rapping (or melodically talking) over the end credits.
It’s all part of the kitschy fun of the Guardians of the Galaxy galaxy. We should also mention that in one of his most popular videos (you try getting 12 million hits on YouTube), Hasselhoff covered Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling”… one of the tracks that made Awesome Mixtape Vol. 1 a chart-topper.
Some things are just meant to be: like David Hasselhoff owning the month of May 2017.
Watch the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 talk about their extensive makeup processes:
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