James Gunn Felt His ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Was the Outcast of Marvel
Guardians of the Galaxy became one of Marvel’s many hit films when it first came out. But the movie also might’ve been one of the riskiest superhero projects the brand did at the time.
James Gunn felt like he and his ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ crew were underdogs
Gunn felt like he was perfect for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movie. He was used to directing many out of the box projects, and even made his own unique superhero film in Super. He asserted that Guardians aligned with most of his sensibilities as a storyteller and a fan of the genre.
“Yeah, and I’m not saying this in an egocentric way, but there did come a point when I’m like, ‘Who else would’ve made this?’ I mean, it does fit my personality perfectly,” Gunn once told Superhero Hype. “There was a point early on with Jeremy Latcham, one of the producers, he came in and he said, ‘I feel like you were genetically created in a laboratory to make this movie.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right. It really is everything that I love—aliens, space opera, it’s Marvel super heroes, it’s raccoons.’ I collected raccoon figurines since I was a kid. Pop music. It’s all the things that I really love put into one big movie, so I feel extraordinarily blessed to be able to do it.”
Gunn showed how right he was for Guardians of the Galaxy with the actors he cast. Two actors in particular, like Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista, were stars not many would’ve pegged to be Marvel heroes. Nowadays, they’re pretty much synonymous with their characters. It’s one of the reasons why Gunn considered themselves the outcasts of the MCU.
“Well, I think we are the underdog,” Gunn said. “I think the story of the Guardians, we feel it’s the story of us: me, Chris, Zoe, Dave Bautista, we all basically feel like outcasts and we banded together to do this thing that we really put our hearts into and we did the best we could with. So yeah, I think we feel like outcasts for sure. I mean, Chris, he was a big chubby guy just two years ago. Dave is a wrestler who nobody takes seriously. Zoe is a person of color who’s had to fight insurmountable odds her entire career as not only a person of color but a female. Then, there’s me, who was making a $3 million superhero movie about people getting their heads blown off just a couple years ago.”
James Gunn initially turned down ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’
Marvel thought Gunn would’ve been perfect to adapt the Guardians of the Galaxy comics. But initially, the filmmaker wasn’t really all that intrigued by the idea.
“I have told this story before but when I first went to them, I guess I knew that they were gonna talk to me about Guardians of the Galaxy. When I just heard about it, it didn’t really interest me that much,” Gunn once told Slash Film.
But after a meeting with Marvel’s producers, The Suicide Squad director was quickly sold on making the ensemble superhero feature.
“I went down and they’re gonna be meeting with me about Guardians of the Galaxy—okay, whatever. And I went and I sat down with Jeremy Latcham and Jonathan Schwartz, and they really pitched me pretty hard on Guardians,” Gunn said. “I really thought they were meeting with a lot of people and that it wasn’t as serious as it was at the time. But they pitched me pretty hard and they showed me the art that had been done for Comic-Con that year, and that really spoke to me. I really liked that artwork that Charlie Wen did.”
