James Gunn Talks Guardians Of The Galaxy And Thanos

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

GotGWe recently heard from Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn that Marvel doesn’t own the film rights to a few of their alien races, namely the Skrulls and the Badoon, but there’s a question of how Thanos fits into the universe? After all, he’s expected to be the next big bad in their upcoming movies after he was introduced at the tail end of The Avengers, and all of Marvel’s movies appear to be pointing towards the Infinity Gauntlet.

While on the Pointless Podcast, Gunn continued to talk about both Guardians and the Mad Titan. He explained that the comics form a blueprint for the movies, but that Marvel Studios is not completely set on following those events and stories exactly. He said:

Here’s the thing, truthfully the Marvel Cinematic Universe takes out of both the 616 [“regular” Marvel Comics] and Ultimate Marvel Comics universe, and then they recreate some elements themselves. What Thanos wants in the comics is not necessarily what Thanos wants in the movies; we don’t know yet.

This summer, Guardians of the Galaxy will give us an idea whether or not Marvel Studios will continue to make movies that take place in their cosmic universe. To date, most of their movies take place on Earth, with exception of Thor and Thor: The Dark World. If Guardians is successful, how deep will Marvel venture into space? After all, there are 14 different universes in the Multiverse.

As for Thanos, I never understood the criticism of the movie not being exactly like the book. Movies are meant to be something very different from books, so Marvel keeping comic book readers and hardcore fans guessing on what’s going to happen next is a good thing, and it will be interesting to see how Thanos’ motivations differe from book to film.

In the same podcast, Gunn also talked about why Vin Diesel was the perfect fit for the tree-like alien Groot. It seems that delivering one line in various ways is harder than you’d expect. Of course, Diesel’s voice work as the titular character in The Iron Giant gave the actor some background on how to convey pathos and emotion in only a few words. Gunn continued:

All of the ‘I am Groot’ that were earlier voices didn’t sound very good at all, they sounded like shit. It just didn’t work. Then Vin Diesel came in and, in one day, lied [sic] down all these ‘I am Groot’ tracks, and he’s a perfectionist. He made me explain to him exactly what (Groot) was saying (before each delivery).

Recently, Marvel started the marketing campaign for Guardians, releasin the first teaser trailer, a bunch of profile videos for each member in the team, and a snarky teaser movie poster. It’s a nice start, but we expect to see more before the film is released this summer.

Guardians of the Galaxy follows Peter Jason Quill, a half-human, half-alien who is at the center of a galaxy-wide manhunt after he steals a mysterious orb, which is believed to be an Infinity Gem. As he tries to escape a space prison, he builds an alliance with a group of misfits and outlaws. When the new team learns about the orb’s true power, they must work together to keep the galaxy safe from Ronan the Accuser and the evil Kree Empire.

Guardians of the Galaxy stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Benicio del Toro, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Rooker, Olivia Lovibond, John C. Reilly, and Glenn Close, and opens in theaters everywhere on August 1.