Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has been yet another huge critical and commercial hit for Marvel Studios, but what makes this movie unique is the connection director James Gunn has with fans.
Frequently answering questions and debunking rumours on Twitter and Facebook alike, Gunn outdid himself this week by taking part in a Q&A on Facebook to weigh in on everything from Avengers: Infinity War, deleted scenes we'll see on the Blu-ray, characters he plans on introducing in Vol. 3, cameos, and spoilers for pretty much every facet of the movie just over a week after its release.
Below, you'll find all the biggest and most shocking reveals from Gunn. If you'd like to watch the entire 60+ minute Q&A for yourselves, though, don't worry as we have you covered in the final slide!
8. The Movie Nearly Tied Into Deadpool
Deadpool wasn't set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and based on how well the first movie performed, there's no chance Fox will be making a Spider-Man style deal for the Merc with the Mouth to make the leap into that world in the near future. However, his first solo outing did reference the MCU courtesy of a Stan Lee cameo and Helicarrier and Gunn very nearly continued that here.
While shooting the comic book creator's cameo for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the filmmaker got Lee to recite a variety of lines, one of which was him talking about the time he was a DJ in a strip club! It wasn't revealed why that was dropped, but chances are that it was just one in a long list of lines that Marvel Studios bosses said no to before settling on the one we ended up with in the sequel.
7. An Amazing Deleted Scene Will Be On The Blu-Ray
Gunn made it clear that the theatrical cut of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is indeed his director's cut, but revealed that we will still get at least a few deleted scenes on the Blu-ray. Among them is one featuring the team showing up on Ego's planet only to see that he's prepared a statue for their arrival. However, the villain not knowing what they look like beforehand proves to be problematic.
"It's a statue that looks almost like a Frank Frazetta painting, with a heroic Star-Lord sitting there looking really cool and great … but the rest of the Guardians look pretty terrible," the director explains. "So Gamora is a buxom woman holding onto his leg, looking up at him lovingly. There's a little Drax standing on [Peter's] shoulder with a raccoon tail, and Groot looks like a large brussels sprout. And that's what they see, and Peter Quill thinks it's the greatest statue and everyone else is not really impressed by it." Gunn cautioned that the effects won't be finished, but it sounds really cool!
6. Yondu Almost Didn't Die But Won't Be Resurrected
As you may already know, Gunn is close friends with Michael Rooker, so killing Yondu off is something the filmmaker understandably struggled with. During the Q&A, the director confirmed that he wrote a number of treatments where the Ravager survived at the last minute, but he quickly realised he wasn't doing the right thing despite it being "the hardest choice I've ever had to make from a storytelling perspective."
However, while death in comic books never tends to stick, don't expect him to make his return. "Yondu is dead. I think it's very important that in these movies, there are stakes within the films," he explains. "Yondu is dead. It's sad. There could be a prequel Yondu film or a flashback or something like that. Yondu could exist in the past, but he's not going to come back to life, so long as I am involved with Marvel. It's just not going to happen." R.I.P. Yondu!
5. Adam Warlock Won't Be In Avengers: Infinity War
One of the biggest surprises in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the fact it doesn't have an after-credits scene setting up the events of Thor: Ragnarok or Avengers: Infinity War. However, many fans have understandably assumed that the "Adam" sequence means we'll meet Adam Warlock in the latter, but Gunn was quick to point out that it will be Vol. 3 where we get to learn more about the character.
"Adam Warlock will not be in Infinity War. He will have a future in the MCU. But will it be in Infinity War? It will not." That's interesting, especially as Warlock has such close ties to Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet, not to mention the fact many fans believe that Perter Dinklage has been cast as Pip the Troll, a close ally of the character. Gunn also promised that the team has a key, but supporting, role in Avengers: Infinity War.
4. That's Not Actually Teen Groot
Baby Groot may very well be the most adorable character to ever grace the big screen, but by the time the after-credits scenes roll around, he's become a teenager. Or so we thought! Gunn confirmed both that this isn't Teen Groot and that Star-Lord now has the ability to understand what the sentient tree is saying (something which wasn't the case in the first instalment, though we don't know whether it's now just him and Rocket or the entire team).
"That's actually adolescent Groot," the filmmaker confirmed. "I would call him tween Groot. We call him adolescent Groot, he's not quite teen Groot yet." Gunn also revealed that this Groot has neither the memories of personality traits of his predecessor, meaning Groot did indeed die in Guardians of the Galaxy. "It's not just him becoming Groot from the first movie. He's becoming his own Groot."
3. Why Ego Revealed That He Murdered Meredith Quill
I was going to write up a list of frustrating unanswered questions Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 left us with, but honestly couldn't come up with more than one or two. However, something which did bug me is why exactly Ego would tell Star-Lord that he was responsible for placing the brain tumour in Meredith Quill's head. "On some level he wants to have a connection with his son. He thinks in that moment, Peter understands what it takes to be a conqueror," Gunn explains.
That does make sense, especially as Ego doesn't exactly have the best people skills. The director also mentioned that Ego likely took on the form of the alien races he mated with and that he only appears human to Peter to appease him and make him feel comfortable (something he pretty much confirms when he transforms into Dave Hasselhoff). Oh, and the director even revealed rather depressingly that Ego likely gave all the mothers of his children cancer to cover his tracks.
2. James Gunn Knows He Screwed Up Stan Lee's Cameo
As I've already mentioned, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 featured an amazing Stan Lee cameo which saw the comic book creator addressing The Watchers and filling them in on the various places he's been. Gunn threw a variety of lines at Lee, but the one which ended up being chosen was a reference to Lee being a FedEx guy ("Tony Stank!") in Captain America: Civil War. However, that chronologically takes place after this movie!
"I screwed up, I wasn't thinking, but probably Stan Lee used the guise of a FedEx guy more than one time. It's a mistake, but it can be easily explained away." That's fair enough, and talking of cameos, Gunn also confirmed that Nathan Fillion was never actually set to physically appear as Simon Williams/Wonder Man. Instead, he was just going to be shown in the background on some movie posters which were cut but spotted by fans on set.
1. Another Fox Character Was Wanted For The Movie
We know that Marvel Studios managed to get Ego the Living Planet in exchange for allowing Fox to switch up Teenage Negasonic Warhead's powers in Deadpool, but it turns out that Gunn actually had his eye on another character who's currently owned by the rival studio due to them holding the Fantastic Four rights. That is Annihilus, a villain sure to be familiar to fans of the Guardians' comic book adventures.
"I think that there’s a good chance that if we had all of those characters—I really like the character of Annihilus," Gunn said. "And there’s a chance that I would have done Annihilus as a villain in one of the movies." With any luck, things will change and the director will get his way, because that's a character with a lot of potential Gunn also said he doesn't believe Galactus and Silver Surfer existing in this world would have drastically altered his take on the team.