When James Gunn took part in a Q&A only two days ago with Jeff Goldsmith, the director caused quite the kerfuffle — inadvertently, mind you — after he touched upon the Guardians of the Galaxy and their relationship with the wider MCU. Depending on how you interpreted his answers and indeed which outlet you viewed them on, it seemed as though Gunn either confirmed or outright denied any possibility of the cosmic heroes crossing paths with other Marvel characters and, in particular, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
And so, to set the record straight, the filmmaker has taken to his Facebook page to outline the respective roles of some of Marvel’s cinematic heavyweights, and why the studio wants to keep the two galaxies distinct rather than meshing them together for the sake of a quick quick. It’s an extensive post, but a worthwhile read for anybody with even a sliver of interest as to the goings on behind Marvel’s plans for Phase Three.
Check it out below:
Woke up the other day to two articles – one that announced I said the Avengers and the Guardians were never teaming up, another that said I said they were. These two articles were based ON THE SAME INTERVIEW (the podcast with Jeff Goldsmith). The truth is, I never said either of those things. I’m not going to tell anyone what happens to the Guardians, especially two or three movies down when who even knows if I’ll be around anymore. Whatever the case, there’s been a lot of anger around me – at me, from people defending me at others, and so on. And it’s all people who love Marvel, like me, and just want to see awesome and amazing and moving stories.
There are many more important things going on in the world right now, but this is clogging up my feed, so let me do my best to set the record straight. Perhaps sometimes I say things imperfectly, unclearly, or inelegantly. All I’ve ever tried to say was the Guardians are an important part of the MCU, and they definitely share an existence with the Avengers and other characters in the MCU. But the week after the movie opened I walked into the Marvel offices, and I sat down with Kevin Feige and some of the other folks at Marvel.
We had a long discussion about where the Guardians were headed and what was happening to them. I told them exactly what I wanted to do with the sequel to Guardians, and everyone was on board and excited. And, regarding the bigger picture, we all agreed on one thing, and that was to keep huge chunks of the Guardians separate from the Marvel heroes of earth, because they have a whole galaxy to explore. We wanted to use them as a way to make the MCU bigger, not smaller. We wanted to make sure they have their own mythos, as opposed to only one that is intertwined with the earthbound characters. They ARE connected, of course, but that connection would not be the purpose of their stories and fictional lives.
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will land in theaters on May 5, 2017. For now, you can share your own thoughts on what you’d like to see from the sequel in the comments section below.