Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 marks a lot of lasts for the titular cosmic team, what with it wrapping up the group’s MCU arc, and yet it also features a franchise first as well. As already confirmed in a surprising preview clip, the threequel contains the first usage of the F-word in any Marvel Studios movie. This wasn’t originally part of writer/director James Gunn’s script, however, but was in improvised by star Chris Pratt.
While chatting to Variety at Guardians 3‘s red carpet premiere on Thursday night, the Star-Lord actor re-affirmed that the full four-letter word is heard in the film — and it seems he’s pretty proud to be the one to get to deliver this foul-mouthed MCU milestone. “Yes, I do drop the first F-bomb,” he revealed, before adding, “Take that, Samuel L. Jackson.”
When co-star Elizabeth Debicki (who returns as Sovereign queen Ayesha from Vol. 2) asked if the line was scripted or not, Pratt elaborated on how the F-bomb became a reality, which saw him admit that it may have come from a point of frustration so he was surprised it actually ended up in the finished cut:
“No, it was not. It was not scripted. Everyone’s been trying to improv F-bombs for 10 years and finally one made it in. Usually when you start dropping F-bombs in an improv scenario, it’s really your indication to the filmmaker that you’d like to move on, and they actually put it into the film, so that’s pretty good!”
PG-13 movies are allowed one instance of the F-word, although Marvel has always previously steered clear of the term presumably due to its reputation as a family-friendly franchise. If the unwritten rule was going to be broken anywhere, though, it was always going to be in the irreverent Guardians trilogy. Although, as Pratt jokingly reminds us, you’d half expect it to come from Jackson’s Nick Fury too. Who knows, maybe Pratt has started a trend and we can expect some further F-bombs to be deployed in Secret Invasion.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is out next Friday May 5.