Guardians 2 Will be Completely Different:
Gunn unabashedly loves his film (as do we, come to that!), but says that he's not looking to recapture it with the second installment.
"I think we're going to have to do something different," the director told IGN. "It's not about recapturing it because Guardians of the Galaxy was really good at what it did. It is what it is. So it's not about recapturing it. It's about taking the characters in new directions and learning new things about them. It's about taking these characters that people believe in and making them even more real. You asked me what resonates; I totally believe in those characters. I believe those characters are real. To me, Rocket and Groot are real. I feel love for them like I would a human being. That's probably some form of mental illness on my part, but that's just the way it is. I think that truth, really believing in those characters, resonates with people. Also, I think it's a movie that doesn't -- I think for 30 years a lot of Hollywood movies have been treating the audiences like they're idiots. We didn't. We know it's fun, and we're not against having a good dumb time -- seeing explosions and stuff like that -- but at the heart of it, I think there's this basic respect for the humanity of the audience involved and a respect for the characters and the storytelling. I think that people like that."
The director says the sequel may very well delve further into the characters' backstory, but the real focus is honing in on new facets of their personalities, rather than following a structure of, "open on something sad, then move into something happy and exciting with a music transition." Guardians 2 will be its own entity.
The Marriage Between Marvel and Gunn:
One of the most gratifying aspects of Guardians of the Galaxy is that it feels like the perfect combination of a Marvel and James Gunn movie. The director was elated by the amount of freedom he had on the film and that the most outlandish ideas he brought them were the ones that the Marvel team seemed to respond to. When asked why he felt it was such an easy match, Gunn reflected that his life long fandom may have helped.
"I think because I love Marvel comics so much and I grew up loving Marvel comics it wasn't that hard," Gunn said. "I set out to make a movie that was 100-percent a Marvel movie and 100-percent a James Gunn movie. That's what I wanted it to be, so I made the movie that I wanted to see. Growing up with Marvel comics, there were different artists within Marvel Comics. I mean, most Marvel comics were somewhat generic and kind of the same. Then you had someone come along like Frank Miller, who did his run on Daredevil, and all of a sudden, yeah, that was a great Marvel comic. It was a great Frank Miller comic. What Steve Ditko was like on Spider-Man, and his artwork is so unique. Jack Kirby, of course, and Jim Starlin. You had these guys that worked within the Marvel Universe who all had their own specific voices there. You know, Chris Claremont and John Byrne working together on X-Men, when that first became a big hit. I think that those things were all really nice moments. I think that the Marvel [Cinematic] Universe is simply doing that same thing."
Does Thanos Need to Be Scarier?:
As we touched previously, some feel that Thanos hasn't reached the level of fearsome badassery in the Marvel films that he has in the comics - yet. When we asked Gunn his thoughts on the matter, the director replied thoughtfully that the character, "needs to be developed more."
"He's just a blip in this movie," Gunn said of the Thanos' role in Guardians. "So he needs a lot more development before he can take on the entire, you know, Marvel Earth Universe at least. So we'll see what happens."
The DC Slate and Possibility of Darkseid:
"That would be pretty weird, I think," Gunn mused when IGN asked what he thought of the rumor that DC classic villain Darkseid may appear in one of the Justice League movies and if he is perhaps to similar to Thanos (at the very least physically) to make sense as a potential big bad for DC's movie universe.
"That would be a strange choice," Gunn concluded.
DC actually created Darkseid in their comics first and then Marvel introduced their galactic threat, Thanos, whose development was influenced by the DC villain. However, Marvel Movies has already brought Thanos into to the cinematic universe, potentially, in some ways, beating DC to the punch.
As far as the slate itself goes, Gunn said he wasn't sure yet "if it's interesting or not."
"The truth is, it's a list of titles, and if they're done well they'll be good," the director said. "If they aren't, they won't be good. But I think we have a little bit more of an idea of what we're getting with Marvel. I mean, we know the actors, we know the characters -- we've seen movies with these characters. You have some idea of what's going on already. We've told
a big part of the story. With DC, they haven't told the story yet."