Gunn Says Original "Guardians of the Galaxy" Characters Were Considered for the Film

CBR

By Anthony Couto

Published Aug 15, 2016

The director reveals his early consideration to include the original team in the first "Guardians of the Galaxy."

Director James Gunn now says he considered using the original "Guardians of the Galaxy" team in his first film. Inevitably, he used the modern incarnation of the team popularized by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, which consists of none of the original members.

Answering fan questions on his Facebook page, Gunn said, "There was that consideration, yes," when asked if he ever thought of using the first version of the Guardians in his film.

Created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan for 1969's "Marvel Super-Heroes" #19, the original Guardians consisted of Major Vance Astro, Martinex T'Naga, Captain Charlie-27 and Yondu Udonta. Yondu, of course, made it into "Guardians of the Galaxy," played by Michael Rooker ("The Walking Dead").

Additionally, Gunn responded to a fan who asked if he thought of using different characters on the team for the sequel: "Yes. In my initial treatment I had a whole other Guardian involved. I loved the character and loved including him/her, and thought my take was fun. But I started to feel that there were too many characters in the story and for all of the characters to get their due, I needed to remove one. So this character left, and Mantis stayed."

Gunn's next outing, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," hits theaters on May 5, 2017.