20 facts you might not know about 'Guardians of the Galaxy'

Gunn was a bit of a surprising choice to direct Guardians of the Galaxy, given that he had spent a lot of his career on violent, raunchy comedies. Several names were considered for the directorial gig, including some future Marvel directors. Peyton Reed would end up on the Ant-Man films, while Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck directed Captain Marvel.

Guardians of the Galaxy as a project began in 2009 with Nicole Perlman. She was in Marvel’s screenwriting program and was asked if there was any Marvel property she’d want to take a crack at. Perlman chose Guardians of the Galaxy, which was surprising. After a few drafts, the project was passed to Gunn. Gunn has said that he basically threw Perlman’s entire script out and started anew, but due to WGA rules, Perlman is still credited alongside Gunn.

Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord, is the ostensible lead of Guardians of the Galaxy. Naturally, a lot of actors were considered for the role. Some notable names considered were Joel Edgerton, Eddie Redmayne, Zachary Levi, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Glenn Howerton, of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame, was reportedly the second choice for the role.

As you likely know, Chris Pratt ended up starring as Quill. However, he had to be cajoled into trying out for the part. He had apparently soured on lead roles after a couple of failures. Gunn also wasn’t sure he wanted Pratt for the role of Star-Lord. Nevertheless, casting director Sarah Finn got them together and quickly decided to work together. Pratt lost 60 pounds for the role.

Also, trying out for the role of Quill? Lee Pace. While he didn’t get to be Star-Lord, he did end up cast as Ronan the Accuser, the villain of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Gunn had trouble landing on who he wanted for the role of Star-Lord, but he did have somebody in mind for Gamora. That would be Amanda Seyfried. However, Seyfried turned the movie down, not wanting to spend all that time in makeup. This opened the door for Saldana, who joked that she had been blue before (in Avatar), so this was her chance to be green.

Diesel voices Groot, the living tree. He can, notably, only say “I am Groot,” though when he says it, he means different things. To that end, Diesel didn’t merely get into the recording studio and say, “I am Groot." He asked Gunn for his character’s motivation before every different “I am Groot” reading, and he said it every time in the film.

Bradley Cooper voices Rocket Raccoon, and some of his mannerisms were reportedly used for the movie. However, the physical performance of Rocket primarily fell on another actor. That would be Sean Gunn, the brother of James Gunn. Sean stood in for Rocket while filming for the other actors and played Kraglin, Yondu’s first mate.

Stan Lee has a cameo in Guardians, and so does James Gunn. On top of that, Troma honcho and Gunn’s friend Lloyd Kaufman plays an inmate, while Nathan Fillion provides the voice of an inmate. Oh, and Seth Green voices Howard the Duck in a post-credits-scene cameo.

Thanos is the overarching villain of the first stretch of the MCU. When he first showed up, they hadn’t entirely locked in on the Mad Titan. He’s portrayed, uncredited, by Damion Poitier in an uncredited cameo. This movie is the first time Thanos is really a character in the MCU and the first time Josh Brolin plays him.

Movies like this can be a CGI extravaganza, but Gunn wanted to avoid that as much as possible. He made the effort to use as many practical effects as possible, including building that whole prison set, which reportedly weighs 350,000 pounds.

Right before the credits, Baby Groot breaks into some dance moves. Gunn actually did that dancing as a reference for the animators. Baby Groot’s moves are based on Gunn’s.

Quill has a Walkman with a mixtape featuring hit songs from the ‘60s and ‘70s. In addition to allowing the movie a lot of needle drops, it helped create the world of the show. Moviegoers were fans. Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol 1 featured 12 songs from the film. That soundtrack album went to No. 1 on the Billboard album charts, the first time a soundtrack of all previously released songs had done that.

In addition to the pop songs, Guardians of the Galaxy has a score. That score was provided by Tyler Bates. The way the scoring was done was quite unusual. Gunn had Bates create the score first so that he could film the movie to the music instead of having Bates watch the film and then score it.

Guardians of the Galaxy debuted as the No. 1 movie at the North American box office. However, in its second and third weeks, it was second behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Groot and Co. had more legs than Michelangelo and his crew. Guardians of the Galaxy was again the No. 1 movie in its fourth, fifth, and sixth weeks.

The fact Guardians of the Galaxy was so successful was perhaps proof that the MCU machine was fully rolling. Though the film didn’t have any huge stars and featured characters nobody had heard of, the movie made $772.8 million worldwide. That made it the third-highest-grossing movie of the year, behind a Transformers film and a Hobbit movie.

Guardians was nominated for two Academy Awards. If you pay attention to the awards for which movies like this get nominated, you can probably guess which ones. That’s right, Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Visual Effects. It did not win either award.

Guardians of the Galaxy was followed by Vol. 2, a sequel that brought in Kurt Russell to play Ego, a Celestial who happens to be Peter’s father. A third volume is coming, with Gunn directing after controversy related to some iffy, arguably inappropriate jokes he had made in the public forum. Gunn also had to take the time to direct The Suıcide Squad for DC. “Vol. 3” will be released on May 5, 2023.

Have you ever seen the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special? Leave it to Gunn and the somewhat irreverent universe of Guardians of the Galaxy to riff on that. It has been announced that Gunn wrote and directed a Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special that spoofs and pays homage to the Star Wars version. Look for it on Disney+  in December 2022.

Do you know how directors like Martin Scorcese will talk about how they don’t necessarily love comic book movies, and then people flip out? Well, one legendary director doesn’t seem to mind them. Specifically, he’s quite the fan of Guardians of the Galaxy. Steven Spielberg has said that Gunn’s movie is the superhero film that has “impressed” him the most.