It's an Anti-Matter of Fact: James Gunn Reveals Which Fox Character He Wanted for 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

Somewhere out there, there is an alternate reality where everyone can be friends and Fox and Marvel can put their differences aside. However, in the meantime we are locked in a bitter (Infinity) war where you can't say the name Reed Richards without causing a (Sue) Storm in a teacup. Thanks to a bitter dispute about who owns which characters, we are left with two Quicksilvers, minimal X-Men in Deadpool, and why people are unsure how you can have a Spider-Man-less Venom movie.

It is all to do with people not willing to share and lawsuits that I can't be bothered getting into, however, given free reign over all the Marvel lines, who would #GuardiansoftheGalaxy director #JamesGunn feature in his #superhero franchise? Would he bring back Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, or would Patrick Stewart wheel onboard the Milano as Professor Xavier?

Don't Be So Negative (Zone)

Unsurprisingly, Gunn went down the villain route, and we all love hearing about a dark side, to reveal there was a certain someone he would love to battle Star-Lord and friends. Speaking during the recent Facebook Live Q&A, Gunn revealed that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Annihilus would be on his fantasy football team for the movies to face-off against his Guardians:

“I think that there’s a good chance that if we had all of those characters—I really like the character of Annihilus. And there’s a chance that I would have done Annihilus as a villain in one of the movies.”

More famous for his run ins with the Fantastic Four, Annihilus is the undisputed leader of the Negative Zone. First appearing alongside Reed Richards and co. in 1968, his notable storyline included him controlling a bug-like race of aliens and leading his armada known as the Annihilation Wave. Ironically, Guardians stalwarts Star-Lord and Drax we among those who wanted to fight against him and it led to a popular arc.

His #comicbook tenure also saw him destroy Guardians haunts like The Kyln and Xandar, so if anything, Annihilus would perfectly fit the already established Guardians world that Gunn started in 2014. The fact that he so quickly answered with the intergalactic villain must mean that the director has played around with possible stories in his head.

Annihilating The Possibilities

Our space adventurers are currently tooling up to take on Josh Brolin's Thanos, while Elizabeth Debicki is confirmed to return as Ayesha for Vol. 3 — possibly alongside Adam Warlock — but Annihilus would certainly give us something to talk about beyond that. Using his Cosmic Control Rod, the B-list villain can actually control his own realities as a way to extend his life, and is certainly overdue for a cinematic appearance.

Given that Guardians and now Doctor Strange have been visiting some far-off lands, plus the arrival of Captain Marvel, it would make sense that Marvel at least hints at the Negative Zone's existence. However, with Annihilus originally slated to be the Big Bad of the dire Fant4stic in 2015, it looks like Fox will be holding on to him for dear life to fix their Fantastic f*ck up.

It is all a lot of ifs and buts, and with Gunn having reportedly decided on his villain for Vol. 3, Fox and Marvel are unlikely to make a deal in time to bring the Negative Nelly into the MCU. Who knows, in some other Annihilus reality, maybe we did get Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 10 and watched Star-Lord take on the green meanie, but for now, let's banish this one back to the Negative Zone.