Put Your Gunns Away: Why James Gunn Nearly Didn't Direct 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

The stardust may only just be settling on another party-hard installment of Star-Lord with #GuardiansoftheGalaxy2, but #Marvel addicts are already looking ahead to the future of the superhero sucker punch. It is sure to be a fanfare for fans that #JamesGunn is rightfully returning to the helm of the intergalactic outcasts to round off his trilogy with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, however, this nearly wasn't the case at all!

Warning: Spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ahead.

Gunns Out Huns Out

Speaking to the spoilerific Facebook Q&A about Vol. 2, the acclaimed #scifi director revealed that he nearly turned his back on teenage Groot and bowed out after just the two films. Why, you may ask? Well, it appears that one man really can make the difference, and Gunn was reluctant to make another film without Michael Rooker by his side.

Responding to a question on why he decided to kill off Rooker's mohawked Yondu, Gunn said that it affected him much more than he thought:

“Michael Rooker, for all the crap I give him, is one of my closest friends in the world and the last thing I wanted to do was to make a movie without Michael Rooker in the future. I almost didn’t do Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 because there was no Michael Rooker in it and I couldn’t see making the movie without him. He means that much to me and I love him that much.”

The grizzly Alabama actor has appeared in all of Gunn's films since 2006's Slither and the duo clearly have quite the cinematic bond. In fact, the divisive decision to kill off Rooker was originally a whole stumbling block for Vol. 2's finale, so you can't blame the guy really.

Although Gunn's involvement in Vol. 3 was officially announced on April 17 during Vol. 2's press tour, only a month earlier he had seemed pretty unsure. All this makes sense now, especially if Gunn was having cold feet about the project and had gone into mourning over Yondu.

Papa Can You Hear Me?

Thankfully the ending stuck, while the tragic demise is arguably what pushed Vol. 2 from just another "Oh look, Quicksilver is dead" to a monumental change in pace for the #MCU. Still, it doesn't make it any easier for us, especially considering that Yondu finally made it appropriate for us to use the word "Daddy" again in a non-sexual way. Gunn also found time to reflect on the Quill/Yondu relationship and what it meant for the film's development:

"This was about a father’s true and ultimate love for his son. This is a movie about, Who really are our fathers? Who really are our siblings? And the only way for it to be an honest story was for Yondu to die, and anything else would have been half measures, and would have been me backing out because I was afraid to tell the truth. And so that’s why Yondu dies.”

It all got pretty deep for a #superhero film, but it all worked alongside Dave Bautista's comedy performance and new additions like Pom Klementieff. There may have been some minor villain problems, but hey, it is the MCU.

Given the box office supernova that has been the first two Guardians films, it is hard to see a third one going any other way than up. There is something about the ragtag rabble of rogues that is a welcome step away from the "perfect" world of Captain America's chiseled jaw and Robert Downey Jr.'s veneers. Perhaps it is the far-off lands or the rocking soundtrack, but the Guardians are one of the MCU's hottest properties at the moment. Still, there is no denying that our favorite Mary Poppins impersonator will be missed in the future of the series — sleep tight you snaggletoothed scavenger.