By Brent McKnight | 6 years ago

As a fan, James Gunn is exactly the kind of director you want helming a movie. Sure, he makes wonderful nerdy films like Slither and Guardians of the Galaxy, but he’s also super enthusiastic and loves to interact with fans. All through the process of Guardians, from preproduction to the home video release, he’s been all over social media, sharing images, news, extras, and generally looking like he’s having a really good time. He recently hosted a live commentary/Q&A session on his Facebook page, where fans could pop in their own copy of Guardians and watch along as he “talked,” and more than a few interesting tidbits about the movie, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy 2, came out.

If you, like most of us, have scoured the very depths of your Guardians Blu-ray, you know Gunn already recorded a commentary track, which is a fun, informative good time. But you also probably know that he loves to talk about his movie, and has a lot to say, so you know another go round isn’t super outlandish. He can fill the time.

Movies have a way of changing and evolving through the production process as they move from script to shoot to post, and Guardians is no different. We’ve heard that this or that character had to be excised from the screenplay and that sort of thing, but in the original version, one major character almost kicked the bucket.

Michael Rooker’s Yondu plays a big role in the life of Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), but he almost didn’t make it through the movie in one piece. Gunn says:

In the original script (that I wrote) Rocket had a little bomb in this scene. At the end Quill put it in the Orb when he gave it to Yondu. And, as Yondu flew away at the very end, his whole ship exploded.

That could have been a problem for the future, because we know that the next phase for the Guardians team is going to involve finding out the identity of Quill’s father, and Yondu is going to play a sizable part in that. You get the impulse to end this way, with the proverbial bang, but it’s for the best they went a different direction.

Speaking of Guardians of the Galaxy 2, we know at least one major character won’t be back: Lee Pace’s Ronan the Accuser. This isn’t really a surprise as he’s pretty much very, very dead at the end of the first film. While comics are a format where characters don’t always stay as deceased as they do in real life, don’t expect to see Ronan any time too soon. When asked, Gunn says, “Who knows. But not in 2, no.”

He leaves the door open for an eventual return. Someone, somewhere can probably find a way to revive him if they try hard enough, but there’s no Ronan in Guardians 2. That’s good, it’ll be nice to see the world expand. There are a lot of bad guys out there in the galaxy, and watching them face off against a familiar foe isn’t as exciting as the unknown.

While it has a definite sarcastic edge, and hints at Quill’s sexual adventures, Guardians is actually relatively tame, with one notable exception. There’s a single line that definitely stands out, the “Jackson Pollack line.” It’s subtle, something Quill delivers in an offhand manner, but it also makes you stop as you realize exactly how filthy it is. It wasn’t a bit anyone involved expected to get past Disney, but to their surprise, the studio let it slide. Gunn says:

The Jackson Pollock line was something I said on set and asked Chris to say. We only filmed it one time. People thought we were wasting time on set, because nothing that dirty would ever make it into the film.

We’re glad Disney turned a blind eye, or ear, to this line.

These are just a few of the highlights from the Q&A session, and while you can’t go back and experience it live if you missed it, you can always scroll through Gunn’s Facebook page and glean most of the information. It’s well worth perusing if you’re interested in this sort of behind-the-scenes stories and trivia.