James Gunn has revealed thatGuardians of the Galaxyoriginally had aStar Warsconnection that would have played a big part in the movie.Guardians of the Galaxywas a watershed moment for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it proved that audiences would truly be on board for very unconventional comic book movies, as long as they’re good. And by most accounts,Guardians of the Galaxyis quite good. The movie has been compared toStar Warsin the past and, as it happens, there was originally going to be a connection to the beloved franchise in the firstGuardiansmovie.
As he regularly does,James Gunntook some time to engage with his fans via a Facebook Q&A recently. At one point, Gunn revealed that an early draft of the screenplay included a rather surprising connection betweenGuardians of the GalaxyandStar Wars, via Star-Lord possessing some action figures from George Lucas' classic space opera. Here’s what Gunn had to say about it.
“In the screenplay that was written by Nicole Perlman before I came on to Guardians, Kevin [Feige, Marvel Studios President] had asked that Star-Lord have theseStar Wars figuresthat he loved. And so these Star Wars figures were in the movie and played a big part in it. But I thought that didn’t work for me, so I took them out.”
Beyond that, James Gunn didn’t reveal anything else about theseStar Warsfigures or how they would have been a “big part” ofGuardians of the Galaxy. Though it was previously reported that a Darth Vader action figure would have completely replaced the Sony Walkman that has become so iconic in the series, which would have certainly changed the soundtrack aspect of the movie. When Gunn came on board, he did a re-write on the screenplay and the movie is largely his vision. Even without the action figures, there’s still a lot of70s and 80s pop culturelaced into Star-Lord as a character, as those are the years he spent on Earth, so those serve as his reference points.
With that in mind, it’s completely understandable to think thatStar Warswould have been a part of that. TheStar Warstrilogy is as big as it gets when it comes to pop culture anda boy of Peter Quill’s agewould have almost certainly had some figures from the movie. However, as James Gunn reveals, that it didn’t quite work for him, so it didn’t make it into the movie. Perhaps having aStar Warsconnection inGuardians of the Galaxywould have been a little too on the nose.
It just so happens that Disney now owns all of Marvel, which includesGuardians of the GalaxyandStar Wars. And it happens thatGuardiansturned out just fine without theStar Warsaction figures.Guardians of the GalaxyandGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2have grossed a combined $1.63 billion, with a third installment of the franchise on the way as part of Marvel’s Phase 4 plans. You can check out the full Q&A fromJames Gunn’s Facebookfor yourself below. GotG poster art above byMatt Ferguson.
