Really done with Marvel? “Guardians Of The Galaxy 3” creator James Gunn at his emotional farewell to the MCU

Hardly any MCU director was as able to bring his own signature to the Marvel movie world as James Gunn, who not only directed, but also wrote the “Guardians Of The Galaxy” films. Now, before fully embarking on a new executive job at DC’s comic book competition, he’s ending his Marvel trilogy with Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3 – much as he intended a decade ago.

James Gunn also emphasizes this when we sit down with him for an interview after a screening of the new space adventure from Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Co. at Disneyland Paris. Although the conversation mainly revolves around his MCU farewell performance and how much freedom he enjoyed despite all the bizarre and dark ideas, his upcoming time at DC should not go unmentioned…

James Gunn: (laughs) That’s great. From the first movie, I’ve heard that so many near-teens suddenly got into 70s music. I get a lot of videos of parents dancing to “Come And Get Your Love” with their kids. That’s really cool.

James Gunn: At no point did anyone say anything to it. Nobody complained. The only caveat is that there won’t be any Lylla stuffed animals, so I said, “Why don’t you make Lyllas? I think they’re cute.” (laughs)

James Gunn: Little things always change. But the core, the stories of Rocket, Star-Lord, Nebula and everyone else, the main things I wanted to do in the series, turned out pretty much the way I saw it in the beginning. It feels very much like we have reached our goal.

James Gunn: The secret is that I cry a lot and laugh a lot. If I’m writing a sad scene while I’m working on the script, I cry. When I write a happy scene, I laugh. I entertain myself when I work. It just has to feel real. But a lot of fine-tuning is also needed in the editing to ensure that jokes and feelings don’t overshadow each other.

Extensive action, varied music

James Gunn: It was my idea and our co-stunt coordinator, Wayne Dalglish. We’ve been working on this for many, many weeks to get it up and running. We planned it by rehearsing a lot with stunt people and a few actors, and then later with a mix of stunt people and animated storyboards. Then came the actual shooting of the scene, which lasted five days. We repeated this many times to get the camera movements and stunts right. And then everything was put together.

In these ensemble films, the different characters are always on the move in different locations. This is also necessary for it to work. But it’s great to see them all back together and shoot all guns.

James Gunn: Sometimes you just have to give people what they want. And it worked perfectly too. I like the Beastie Boys, but this time I also generally liked taking songs that might not be considered obvious “Guardians” songs, like Alice Cooper’s song “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” and Florence And The Machine. However, I considered many different songs for the scene, it almost ended up being Kid Rock’s “Bawitdaba”.

James Gunn: I tried the character of Bug in the first two movies [ein käferähnliches Alien mit geschärften Sinnen und der Fähigkeit, an Wänden zu kleben, Anm. d. Red.] to find out who is a member of the Guardians in the comics. I liked him in the Micronauts comics I read as a kid. However, it’s not wholly owned by Marvel, so I couldn’t use it. Otherwise I probably would have made him the main character.

James Gunn: That was very important. Every character needed its rhythm. What’s also interesting about this trilogy is that the first two films take place just a few months apart, while part 3 now takes place many years later. That’s why the group is a family, they worked together a lot and that’s how we get a little bit of what they’ve been through in the meantime.

From Marvel to DC

James Gunn: No. As long as I’m in DC, I can’t do that. When I went to DC they knew I had to finish this strong and still focus on that. But once that’s over, I’ll be with DC full-time. So I couldn’t get involved with Marvel from a purely legal point of view. But Kevin [Feige, der Chef der Marvel Studios, Anm. d. Red.] and I still exchange a lot, we are friends.

James Gunn: I would take them all. I have a close relationship with Chris and Pom. And I’m also good friends with Dave, Karen and Zoe. And Mary [Bakalova]who voices Cosmo here is actually already on board as a voice actor in the Creature Commandos series, as is my friend Frank Grillo, who was also in the MCU.

Superman: Legacy

James Gunn: Then I let the trailers do the work. Still, it will have everything Superman fans love about Superman. But there will also be a lot for people who haven’t caught on to the character yet or don’t understand her. I think it will be a good entry point for people who aren’t Superman fans.

James Gunn: I’ve never thought about it that way. I think there are plenty of good directors out there who could tell more stories with the characters. But for The Guardians to survive, it would have to be someone putting their own signature and not just trying to do what we’ve done with the previous movies, but doing it in a different way.