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James Gunn Reveals What He Would Change About The Original 'Guardians Of The Galaxy'

At this point, it's hard to dispute that the first Guardians of the Galaxy was a phenomenon.

By Tom BaconPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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Alas, poor Ronan! 'Guardians of the Galaxy' [Credit: Marvel Studios]

At this point, it's hard to dispute that the first Guardians of the Galaxy was a phenomenon. Everybody thought Guardians might be the moment when Marvel jumped the shark; after all, they were making a movie that starred a walking tree and a talking raccoon. Instead, Guardians of the Galaxy was a huge success, launching a whole new Marvel film franchise and adding a cosmic dimension to the MCU.

But even Guardians of the Galaxy isn't perfect. Now, writer and director James Gunn has admitted just what he'd change about this Marvel classic.

The Villains

One of the most common fan criticisms of Guardians of the Galaxy is that the villain, Ronan, wasn't well-developed. That's something James Gunn isn't too happy about, and he admitted that he wishes he could rework the character.

As he noted in a Facebook chat:

"There is some messy villain plot stuff in the first movie I'd like to deal with again. There was a committee working for Marvel at the time (now defunct) who had a lot of input, and that was primarily where it ended up. It just got a little messy."

By all accounts, the old #Marvel Creative Committee was typically focused on foreshadowing. They pushed to have S.H.I.E.L.D. play such a prominent role in Iron Man 2 in order to set up The Avengers, for example, and Joss Whedon faced a constant struggle over how many plots Avengers: Age of Ultron had to set up. Given Gunn's comment, it seems likely that the somewhat forced relationship between Thanos and Ronan was forced on him by the MCC.

Guardians of the Galaxy didn't have a bad plot, but Gunn is right when he calls it "messy." Guardians spends quite a bit of time setting up Thanos, time that could easily have been better spent developing Lee Pace's character. We can chalk this one up to another questionable decision by the MCC.

The Marvel Creative Committee consisted of Marvel execs and comic book writers. Its members included:

  • Alan Fine, an executive who joined the company along with CEO Ike Perlmutter in the '90s.
  • Brian Bendis, a popular and prolific comic book writer.
  • Dan Buckley, a publisher with a reputation for strong understanding of the Marvel brand, and the mastermind behind Marvel's current push into TV shows.
  • Joe Quesada, the popular (albeit controversial) writer, editor, and artist.

It's widely believed that the MCC members were brought on board during the production of 2008's Iron Man, with Bendis writing the famous end-credits sequence that essentially launched the entire #MCU. As the years passed, though, the MCC appears to have grown in influence. They had the ear of Marvel's CEO Ike Perlmutter, and as a result were able to push their own vision for the MCU's overarching narrative. This seems to have frequently been in conflict with Marvel visionary Kevin Feige, and directors often wound up caught in the firing line between two competing agendas. They just wanted to get on with making their films, but were frequently forced to compromise their movie in order to align with whichever force was winning the latest battle.

In 2014 and 2015, the MCC were flexing their muscles in order to set up Phase 3. This is the first sign Gunn has given that he had his own struggles with the MCC, but Joss Whedon's have become the stuff of legend. As Whedon noted, the MCC was particularly invested in Thor's vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

"The dreams were not an executive favorite either — the dreams, the farmhouse, these were things I fought to keep. With the cave, it really turned into: They pointed a gun at the farm's head and said, 'Give us the cave, or we'll take out the farm' — in a civilized way. I respect these guys, they're artists, but that's when it got really, really unpleasant."

It's a pretty incredible statement, suggesting things got so bad that Whedon and the MCC essentially had to agree a trade-off. The irony? The Thor cave scene was originally far longer, but was cut because test audiences didn't respond well to it, and couldn't even understand why it was in the film in the first place. Meanwhile, it's generally believed that Edgar Wright left Ant-Man when he realized he wouldn't have the level of control he expected as director.

Matters came to a head in 2015, with Kevin Feige reportedly threatening to quit. Disney intervened and forced a corporate restructure, separating Marvel Studios out from the wider Marvel Entertainment group. With James Gunn now one of the MCU's main architects, he no doubt enjoys a level of freedom that the Creative Committee would never have allowed.

By revealing what he'd change about Guardians of the Galaxy, Gunn has offered another glimpse into the troubled history of Marvel Studios. Luckily, with the MCC's influence curbed, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was able to give us a very different — and far deeper — villain in Ego the Living Planet.

(Sources: Facebook, The Hollywood Reporter)

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About the Creator

Tom Bacon

A prolific writer and film fan, Tom has a deep love of the superhero genre.

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