Posted in: FX, Hulu, Preview, streaming, Trailer, TV, YouTube | Tagged: always sunny, bleeding cool, cable, Charlie, chris pratt, dee, dennis, frank, fx on hulu, FXX, Glenn Howerton, guardians of the galaxy, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, james gunn, mac, Paddy's, Peter Quill, star-lord, streaming, television, tv

Always Sunny: Yes, Glenn Howerton Was THIS CLOSE to Playing Star-Lord

While we continuing waiting for production news on the record-setting 15th season of FXX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, we've been keeping a social media-guided eye on what  Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Danny DeVito have been up to (with "Charlie Week" being a perfect example). But for this update, we actually have a merging of two worlds. With filming on HBO Max And James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" spinoff series Peacemaker currently underway, the writer/director has been taking time on set to answer questions via Instagram Stories. And it's that Q&A that brought the worlds of the John Cena-starring series and Paddy's together. At one point, Gunn was asked who else auditioned for the role that would go to Chris Pratt: Guardians of the Galaxy's Peter Quill aka Star-Lord. Though Gunn said he would never reference a name unless that person made it known publicly first, Gunn stated "many people" knew Howerton auditioned and was Gunn's second choice for the role.

And we respect Howerton's honesty with his response because we would probably still be in bed over it:

But then again, breaking television records with Always Sunny as the longest-running American sitcom (and more to come) isn't anything to sneeze about. Besides, the D.E.N.N.I.S. system would get him killed in a hot sec out in space:

While promoting the third season of A.P. Bio in the UK, Howerton explained to The Guardian how the series works to show the characters' flaws in a manner that shows them as they truly are, allowing the characters to be a target for satire because of them. "Certainly we've become a little bit more careful to make it clear that, while the characters can be misogynistic and racist and horrible, we the writers are not racist, misogynistic, and horrible people. If we were to do some of those episodes for the first time now, people would be like: 'Well, wait a minute, who are these people?' But people now know who we are, and they know that our intentions are actually to skewer this sort of behavior, not to celebrate it."

Bleeding Cool had the opportunity to ask Howerton about the upcoming 15th season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia during our one-on-one interview ahead of A.P. Bio Season 3 here stateside late last year. In the clip below, Howerton explains that the combination of pandemic-related delays and other projects that the cast is committed to (for example, the second season of McElhenney's Mythic Quest, Olson's upcoming Jean Smart-starring comedy, and the fourth season of A.P. Bio) has made it difficult to finalize a production ("at this point, it's more of a timing thing"). Though they may still be in the process of "trying to figure it out," Howerton expressed how excited and committed they are to a strong 15th run (saying "maybe even a sixteenth" at the time).

Heading into last summer, McElhenney revealed that writing was underway, though production timelines were in flux due to production shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. McElhenney was hopeful that they'll be able to "jump right into something new with 'Sunny'" soon. And he also made one thing clear: as long as the fans want it (and FX Networks wants to keep paying for it, which we now know they clearly do) then Paddy's will be keeping its doors open for some time to come. "How many years do I have on this planet? I'll do it forever. If people keep watching it and we keep having fun, why would we ever stop? It's my dream job. I never understand why people leave shows. I don't. I never understand that," McElhenney explained. "The show is what I dreamed of doing my entire life. I don't take it for granted. And if they keep paying me and the audience keeps watching it and I still love it… why would I ever stop?"

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