James Gunn met with audiences for his World Building Panel at E3 earlier this week, where he revealed thatGuardians of the Galaxydidn’t smell like a good idea when it was first presented to him. The director’s sentiment of hesitation may have very well been what ended up making theGuardianssuch a welcome surprise in the middle of the MCU. It is almost impossible to imagine the world ofGuardians of the Galaxywithout the direction of Gunn, so why the early skepticism?
CinemaBlendis reporting on whyJames Gunninitially thought thatGuardians of the Galaxywas a bad idea. Speaking at his Building Worlds Panel at E3, the director explained.
“I know, for me, when I was first pitchedGuardians of the Galaxy, it was something that I frankly (during) my first hearing of it, I thought it was not a good idea. I thought it was atalking raccoon, with these strange characters, I thought it was too weird. I thought it sounded to me, like when they first pitched it to me, as if it wasBugs Bunnyin the middle ofThe Avengers. And I didn’t think it was something that was going to work.”
You have to admit that Gunn has a point. 5 years ago the whole idea of the cult comic book becoming alive-action MCU movieseemed pretty ridiculous to many at the time it was announced. And who knows? Maybe the franchise could have tanked under the direction of another director and set of writers.
Gunn’s thoughts about the big screen adaptation changed after he did some questioning to himself and realized that theGuardians of the Galaxyis full of more complex characters than what the surface suggests. For Gunn, it seems that theemotional complexity of charactersis what drove him to second guess the idea. He says this.
“I was going home, and I knew theGuardiansfrom the comics and I really liked them, I just didn’t think it was something that would fit into the Marvel Universe. But as I was driving home, I thought “OK, well, let’s just take a moment to think about this.” If there was such a thing as a talking raccoon, what would it be? How could it come to be?… and I actually found the answers to these questions were incredibly sad answers… to me that was the foundation of the entireGuardians of the GalaxyGuardians-Verse.”
It’s interesting to note that the talking raccoon that initially turned Gunn off from the idea of taking the project on was what ended up making him decide to sign on to direct. That early skepticism is exactly what helped Gunn craft theGuardiansfrom one-dimensional characters into the massively successful, unlikely buddy action movie that it is today. Patty Jenkins was initially not sold on the idea of Gal Gadot portrayingWonder Womanand look how that all panned out. The act of second-guessing has served both directors well in creating comic book movies that don’t feel like comic book movies.
Gunn is currently writing the follow up toGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2and again trying to find where theGuardiansare going to fit into the ever-changing world of the MCU and the 616. A lot has changed since the firstGuardians of the Galaxyand Gunn has a lot to take into account while writing the next installment and is considering “breaking the canon.” Gunn apparently has a lot more sleepless nights to figure that dilemma out.
