With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 now on general release, and already receiving a good critical reception and strong numbers at the box-office (81% on Rotten Tomatoes, over $83 million within a couple of days), writer/director James Gunn is no doubt happy for the film to do its thing in cinemas, as he prepares to move onto his next project. But while he’s still mentally in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this weekend he’s been happy to answer a few Guardians-related questions, that have been posed to him on Twitter.
Gunn had just two stipulations when answering the questions: They had to be about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and they had to be answerable with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. He then went about replying to multiple questions accordingly, much to the delight of fans, while providing some insights along the way.
Now I know what you’re thinking. If he only answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ how could the responses be all that insightful? Well, because the questions themselves provided the key details.
For example, one Twitter fan asked Gunn “Did you have to fight/negotiate hard with Disney to have all of those dark scenes? Or were they pretty open to your final vision?”
Gunn answered “no” to the first question and “yes” to the second.
This is a great question as anyone who has seen Guardians Vol. 3 will know, it is a very dark movie, and while Disney do some dark movies, there is a general perception the studio doesn’t like to go too dark. But the questions and subsequent response here makes it clear Disney/Marvel trusted Gunn and were open to him going as dark as he needed to, in order to deliver the movie he wanted to make.
Another good question was posed by a Twitter user who said: “Have you had conversations with Marvel about their plans for the Guardians now that you’re done?” Gunn responded, “yes”.
As Gunn has already left Marvel Studios and moved over to Warner Bros. to usher in a reboot of the DC Universe, he’s made it clear he will NOT be directing a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 4, so any future projects will be made without his involvement. But this doesn’t mean he’s not still part of this universe.
While we don’t know quite what the next Guardians projects might be – although the post-credit scenes in Guardians Vol. 3 offer hints at what they could become – it’s interesting to know Gunn has discussed the Guardians’ future with Marvel. The studio will be keen to utilise some of the characters moving forward, and there is an implication here that Gunn may have provided a few ideas.
Of course it’s possible the conversation between Gunn and Marvel was simply the studio telling him what they have planned, rather than asking his thoughts, but it’s highly likely he at least offered some suggestions. Gunn has made the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise a huge success for Marvel, both critically and commercially, and even if he is parting ways with the studio for pastures new, Marvel still value his input.
Another interesting question popped up, which provided much food for thought. The average MCU human, who is more then aware of the existence of Iron Man, Captain America, and the Hulk etc, has no idea the Guardians exist.
While the Guardians had significant involvement in the events of Infinity War/Endgame, everything they did or didn’t do to fight Thanos has largely passed humanity by. Peter Quill’s grandfather also knows nothing about Pete’s time as Star-Lord, and he has no knowledge that Ego is Peter’s dad.
Other details that emerged during Gunn’s ‘yes/no’ Twitter Q&A revealed the following: The director always planned Guardians Vol. 3 to be about Rocket’s origin story; at one point he considered the idea of having the Fantastic Four villain, Annihilus, as Rocket’s ‘creator’ (instead of the High Evolutionary); and despite their friendship, Rocket does not keep in touch with Thor. Gunn also revealed he did think about giving Howard the Duck a bigger role in all the Guardians films (rather than just sporadic cameos), but he never considered crossing any other Marvel heroes over into this third volume.
Gunn also confirmed that at least one Guardians of the Galaxy cast member will appear in his next movie, Superman: Legacy; he revealed that Cosmo the dog appeared in Guardians Vol. 3 completely through the use of CGI (there was no real dog); and Gamora’s death in Endgame did not cause any problems when writing the script for this final movie. He also answered “yes” when asked if he was happy with the end of his trilogy?
Additional information that occurred during the conversation made it clear there will be no extended cut of Guardians Vol. 3, or any other Guardians movies, as Gunn always delivered the films he wanted to deliver. He also confirmed there was never any plan to include David Bowie’s song, ‘Starman’, on any of the soundtracks, despite it being a seemingly obvious choice for these films.
And while Gunn restricted his responses to largely “yes” or “no”, he did break this rule when asked: “Does Rocket care so much about prosthetic limbs (be)cause it reminds him of (his former friends) Lylla, Floor, and Teefs?” As fans will know, Rocket likes acquiring tech-based body parts, and technology and artificial limbs feature heavily amongst his friends in Guardians Vol. 3.
Gunn responded by saying, complicated (but) sort of”. This suggests Rocket does collect body parts in some part due to his past trauma at the hands of the High Evolutionary.
All-in-all, Gunn’s Twitter Q&A proved very revealing, even if his answers were brief. The questions posed to him by fans opened up some interesting trains of thought, and confirmed there’s still much to think about post-screening of the film.
Oh, and one final tidbit: Just in case you were wondering, Miley Cyrus didn’t reprise voice-over duties for the role of Mainframe on Guardians Vol. 3 (a role she took for Vol. 2), simply because she wasn’t available this time around. And now you know.
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