After appearing as Mainframe in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Miley Cyrus was noticeably absent from Vol. 3.
The actress/hit musician appeared briefly at the tail-end of GOTG 2, but she was recast in James Gunn's MCU threequel, with Miss Minutes voice actress Tara Strong taking on the role this time around.
With Cryus only ever getting one line of dialogue as the Guardians character, some may be wondering why that actress did not get a second chance with the robotic disembodied head.
Why Was Miley Cyrus Not in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3?
Many fans were disappointed to see that Miley Cyrus was not back to voice Mainframe in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but there might be a good reason why she did not return.
Answering questions from fans online, Guardians director James Gunn revealed that Cyrus was "not able to reprise her role from Guardians 2."
This "not able to" verbiage likely means an attempt was made to get her in Guardians 3, but she could not make it work.
The former Disney star likely could not make an appearance due to her busy schedule as a hit-making musician/entertainer and was replaced as a member of the original Guardian team by veteran voice actor Tara Strong.
Cyrus recently released her latest studio album, titled Endless Summer Vacation, which she would have been working on right around the time Marvel Studios would have needed her to record lines for the Guardians trilogy-closer.
Plus, add in that she also has a part in the upcoming fifth season of Netflix's Black Mirror, and one can see why she may have not been able to make it work.
Back in 2017, Gunn told Buzzfeed that he initially hired Cryus because he "[admired] the tone of [her] voice," and thought she was "funny and likable and sweet:"
"I find her funny and likable and sweet. I liked that she cared about the contestants. So we contacted her, and she said yes. She came in and recorded, and she was a delight to work with."
Has a Recast Like This Happened Before?
A similar instance did have to happen back in 2018 under the MCU umbrella, as Captain America: The First Avenger star Hugo Weaving was recast Red Skull/Johann Schmidt in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, by voice actor Ross Marquand.
However, this was ultimately done because Weaving was not interested in the intensive makeup process that would have had to be employed to play the character again.
At the time, Weaving said in an interview with Time Out that he "loved playing that character Red Skull," but ultimately did not return because of issues negotiating with Marvel:
"‘Oh, yeah. I loved playing that character Red Skull – it was a lot of fun. We were all obliged to sign up for three pictures: I was thinking [Red Skull] probably wouldn’t come back in 'Captain America' but he may well come back as a villain in 'The Avengers'. By then, they’d pushed back on the contracts that we agreed on and so the money they offered me for “The Avengers” was much less than I got for the very first one, and this was for two films."
While this instance is similar to Cyrus' being recast, it feels like there may be less bad blood between the pop star and Marvel Studios than between Weaving and the Hollywood giant.
But with the Guardians of the Galaxy unlikely return with this iteration of the team, it's still unknown if Cyrus will get another chance at MCU fame.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is playing in theaters worldwide now.
