Director James Gunn talks GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY's scope

As we’ve mentioned previously, Marvel are taking a massive gamble with the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, with no easily recognisable mainstream stars for the posters, a far out story and one of the kookiest cast lineups outside of a Power Rangers rogues gallery. We just don’t know how Mom ‘n Pop Middle America will respond to that. What we do know though, is that this has the potential for crazy fun, over the top, widewscreen space opera, and that’s apparently just what we’re getting.

 

Speaking to Empire, director and co-writer James Gunn spoke about the scale of this film will dwarf everything that previously came out of the Marvel stable. Yes, even The Avengers, although you shouldn’t be expecting the same kind of movie.

“Visually, [it’s] the biggest movie Marvel has made, because of the big, big starscapes and big action sequences. Our characters are basically all villains to begin with. If The Avengers are The Beatles, the Guardians are The Rolling Stones.”

And if that analogy seems strange (seriously, which Beatle would the Hulk even be? Ringo Starr?!), you better get used to it, because there’s a lot more where that came from.

“There’s a lot of strange stuff in the movie. But I think the thing that makes it different from the rest of the other superhero movies out there is that they try and take something seriously that really can’t be taken seriously because the concept is just too fun at its core.”

If you’ve seen the post-credits scene for Thor: The Dark World, which Gunn actually directed, then you would already have seen and felt some of that strangeness. I know that some people – including Thor: The Dark World director Alan Taylor – were a bit taken aback by that sequence’s weirdness, but that was a 5 minute cold open. Given some context and some time to build up, there’s potential here for a superhero movie unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.

Or we’re all going to walk out of that cinema thinking somebody secretly swapped our popcorn for magic mushrooms.

Guardians of the Galaxy will be, well, guarding the galaxy from August 1, 2014.

Last Updated: January 31, 2014