Joss Whedon Wasn’t Sold On A GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Movie… At First

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Even people who were unfamiliar with Marvel heroes had some knowledge of Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and Captain America. Sure they were B-list when compared to the more popular X-Men and Spider-Man characters, but it’s what Marvel Studios had to work with on their own.

So when Guardians of the Galaxy  was announced as a Marvel film project for Phase II, with a release date in 2014, all of geekdom went wild, even if there was collective surprise at the choice. This was whole new comic book movie territory for Marvel, tapping a franchise most people outside of Marvel die-hards didn’t know existed at all.

Well, Joss Whedon, who is signed on the write and direct The Avengers 2 and oversee the film’s leading up to it, wasn’t sold on the idea of having Guardians be the last film leading into his blockbuster, at least at first. Here’s what he told Collider in an interview at the Saturn Awards:

You know, it seemed out there to me too. I think it came from Kevin and I sort of went ‘I don’t know about this,’ and then they brought on James [Gunn] and he really turned it around… As soon as they said James the movie started to make sense to me in a way the movie hadn’t. ‘Oh, this isn’t a guy who’s going to chase Star Wars, he’s going to make a James Gunn movie, and for James the first thing was ‘I love Rocket. It’s all the raccoon’ and a lot of people were like “really, a raccoon?’ and he’s like ‘nah, the raccoon is the heart‘ and knowing that I felt very safe. And then casting Chris Pratt… I was just there before they started production, and seeing all the designs, I got really jealous. I was like ‘why can’t I make this movie?’ I really turned a 180 on that one.

Somehow, knowing that James Gunn was the man who changed Whedon’s mind makes me love both of them just a little more.

Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters on August 1, 2014.

Source: Screen Rant