Even though both BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and ROCKETMAN are two very different movies, stylistically speaking, it hasn’t stopped many people from comparing them to one another. Beyond each movie’s focus on major English rock stars (Freddie Mercury and Elton John) and box office success their links with director Dexter Fletcher have been of comparison (Fletcher finished RHAPSODY after Bryan Singer was canned and he directed ROCKETMAN entirely), and even he toyed with the idea of making that link even stronger. That idea came in the form of making use of a character in both movies, music manager John Reid, to bring the two music icons together – even only for a brief moment.
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Reid, who in RHAPSODY is played by GAME OF THRONES’ Aidan Gillen and in ROCKETMAN is played by – er – GAME OF THRONES’ Richard Madden, was the manager of both the band Queen and Elton John at some point in their careers. Fletcher revealed to Gay Star News that having the character in both movies gave him the idea of maybe bringing over Rami Malek’s Mercury for a quick cameo appearance in ROCKETMAN, but it was an idea he quickly nixed.
“There was an idea I had [at] one point, where Elton’s in a restaurant with his mother. I thought John Reid and Freddie could be at another table and they wave at each other!” the director said. “That would have been amazing, [but] it didn’t come to pass. It would’ve been a little too knowing. I’m not looking to set out to make a cinematic universe!”
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As fun as that would've been to see these two actors on screen for a brief moment it would have been indeed been a bit fan service-y . As well, perhaps the cameo would be all that people were talking about after the movie came out, making John's movie share some of the spotlight with the already immensely popular Mercury biopic. But, even so, it would've been a sweet little *wink wink* moment, so here's to hoping for that crossover event where we learn they fought off alien invaders in 1978.