There is one thing the Marvel Cinematic Universe was missing until now. No, it’s not Wolverine sharing a stogie with Captain America. No, it isn’t Deadpool eating shawarma with Thor and Bea Arthur’s Force Ghost. And it absolutely isn’t a shot-for-shot remake of “The Clone Saga.” It turns out that the secret ingredient missing from the superheroic jambalaya that is the MCU was Kurt Russell. Now thanks to James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, this spandex-clad stew is finally complete.

Kurt Russell has kicked ass, taken names, and won hearts and minds in countless genre classics like The Thing, Escape From New York, and Stargate for decades. Now he is taking on his biggest role yet. Literally. The dude plays a living planet. In Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, Russell plays Ego the Living Planet, a living, breathing alien world that takes the form of Space Kurt Russell and just so happens to be Star-Lord’s father. That’s right, Drax, he has a penis, and he used it at least once while studying abroad on Earth.

Given the major Jack Burton vibes that Chris Pratt exudes from every pore, it seemed too good to be true that Russell had been cast as his on-screen father. In fact, during our visit to the set of Guardians, we learned that Pratt actually asked Russell to be his actual father too. But what was it like acting alongside a living legend like Russell? What was it like for a lifelong actor like Kurt Russell to join the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe? And how the hell did Marvel work its spooky Michael Douglas-in-Ant-Man-style magic on him? We sent our reporter Hector Navarro to ask Chris Pratt, James Gunn, and Kurt Russell in person to find out.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 opens on May 5, 2017. Read our spoiler-free review!

Image: Disney/Marvel

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).