Guardians Of The Galaxy Finds Its Star-Lord

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Pratt

This moment has finally arrived! After months of rumors and speculation, Marvel Studios has cast Chris Pratt (above, center) in the role of Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, in Guardians of the Galaxy. Many male actors in their late ’20s and early ’30s auditioned for the role, but Marvel and director James Gunn have decided to go with the actor best known for playing the goofy Andy Dwyer on NBC’s Parks & Recreation.

According to Deadline.com, Chris Pratt will take up the leadership position in the upcoming cosmic superhero movie. Pratt had just bulked up to play a member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 in Kathryn Bigelow’s Academy Award-nominated film Zero Dark Thirty, and he proved with that film that he can pull off more serious characters. That said, we should probably expect a lighter tone for Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, likely similar to Joss Whedon’s Avengers.

Peter Quill is a half-human/half-alien NASA astronaut who is recruited as Star-Lord, the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. He has the ability to fly, has super-strength, and uses a special “element gun” that uses all four elements (air, earth, fire, and water) as projectiles. Star-Lord also has a psychic link with his sentient spacecraft, simply dubbed “Ship.”

Now that Marvel has finally cast the lead role of Star-Lord, it’s only a matter of time before Marvel fills out the remaining Guardians roles, including Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Groot, and Rocket Raccoon. The film is aiming to begin principal photography this summer.

Guardians of the Galaxy will hit theaters everywhere on August 1, 2014, in 3D.