Peacemaker creator James Gunn revealed in a new interview that he'd love to direct a musical at some point.
"I've got to find the right thing. I would love to do it, but it's a difficult thing to put on film, a musical," Gunn told Vulture. "It's easier to do in theater. But I think about it all the time."
While Gunn doesn't necessarily have a history of working in theater or producing musicals, he's known for being heavily involved with curating the soundtracks for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, as well as his recent HBO Max series Peacemaker.
The soundtrack to the first Guardians film, titled Awesome Mix Vol. 1, consisted of songs Peter Quill/Star-Lord listened to on his portable cassette player. Tracks featured on the Grammy-nominated '70s-hits-focused compilation include "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede, "Spirit in the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum and "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5.
Following the success of the first Guardians soundtrack, Gunn promised fans Awesome Mix #2 would be even "more diverse." "I think the first soundtrack [had] a bunch of songs that maybe you heard but didn’t know the name of the song - you didn't know the name of the singer," the director said at the time. "In this one, we have some really incredibly famous songs and then some songs that people have never heard." Released in 2017, Awesome Mix Vol. 2 included tracks such as "Mr. Blue Sky" by Electric Light Orchestra," "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac and "Southern Nights" by Glen Campbell.
In January of this year, Gunn also explained the soundtrack for his HBO Max series Peacemaker was designed to capture the essence of the main character's spirit. "He loves hair metal, but I also think it speaks to a lot of the things that his dad is not. It's androgynous," the showrunner explained. "I think of Peacemaker bringing home a Hanoi Rocks album with all the guys in the makeup and the fishnet stockings and everything else, or bringing home a Motley Crue album with a satanic symbol in the front, and those are direct affronts to who his father is. So I feel like music is something that belongs to Peacemaker and, as the series goes on, we see some of the reasons for why that's the case."
While Gunn doesn't have any solid plans to direct a musical in the immediate future, he confirmed the music for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been chosen since early 2020. The director said as much during a Twitter exchange in April of that year, when a fan asked, "Any chance you've already chosen the songs for Vol. 3 and can we get one of them so I can already add it to my playlist? Lol." Gunn responded, "A) Yes, they're already chosen for the most part. B) No, sorry."
Season 1 of Peacemaker is streaming now on HBO Max. Written and directed by Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opens in theaters on May 23, 2023.
Source: Vulture