James Gunn, the current co-head of DC Studios, got his superhero start in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after directing the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. It took quite some time for the third film to get off the ground, however, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was finally released in 2023. During the film’s production, however, James Gunn revealed that there was one Marvel character he refused to add to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Gunn explained that the character, who was a popular part of various other MCU movies and had ties to the titular Guardians, was one that he did not want to include in the third film.
The reason Marvel Studios wanted the character included, however, was because of an arc featured in Avengers: Endgame.
Here’s what Gunn shared while speaking with Entertainment Weekly:
“I said in the script notes: ‘I’m not gonna put him in. I don’t want to have Thor in the Guardians. I don’t want to do a movie with Thor.’ I don’t understand the character that much. I love watching his movies and I love Chris Hemsworth as a guy. I don’t understand how to write that character.”
Gunn shared his regret regarding another character that he tried to tease during Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and how this didn’t exactly work out when doing the third movie:
“I did not like what I did in Guardians 2 where we set up Adam Warlock and we set up the Guardians of the Galaxy and we set up all this shit that I didn’t necessarily plan on. Well, I guess I kind of planned on fulfilling that promise, but you want to be careful about that. The way a post-credits scene works is a punch to the face, like, ‘Oh my God! Look at this.’ At times when you’re using it just solely to set something up, sometimes you’re screwing yourself over. It was not easy to work Adam Warlock into Guardians 3.”
Fortunately, Thor: Love and Thunder seems to have allowed Gunn the freedom to do Guardians 3 without including Thor, thus allowing him to make the movie he wanted to do. While there were some other regrets along the way, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was still a hit with fans, and now Gunn is hard at work with building the DC Universe at Warner Bros. Discovery.
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding the MCU and the future works of James Gunn as we have them. While he’s no longer involved with the Guardians series, it’ll be exciting to see what he has to offer with such projects as Superman and other related titles.