James Gunn Reveals A Shocking Fact About Marvel's Infinity Saga
Like most corporations, Marvel is actually a billion tired people stuffed inside a copyright-protected trench coat. While it might feel as though the whole entity is this unfeeling, robotic thing, every member contained therein is eager to share their unique story. In this way, audiences are bestowed interviews, biographies, and social media info dumps, all for the love of the tale. And few love sharing their tale more than James Gunn, the writer and director behind Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy. As the man who somehow convinced modern consumers to care about a cybernetic raccoon and a sentient potted tree (it wasn't the first — nor the last — time that he gave viewers a weird group of misfits, it seems to be his specialty), Gunn's narrative usually receives a fair bit of coverage.
And that's why we're here now, because the creator went on a brief, impromptu Twitter Q&A to clear the air on some fans' burning curiosities. Here's what Gunn had to say when asked about preparing the dramatic arc of "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame."
James Gunn didn't know Infinity War and Endgame would change everything
Over the weekend, a Twitter user by the rad name of Revolver Ocelot (it's never too late for a good "Metal Gear" reference) asked James Gunn, "You already knew how this story would end, when you were pitching Guardians to Marvel, right? So did you know about what [would] happen in Infinity War and Endgame, about the deaths of Thanos and Gamora, [and] how this [would] affect characters such as Quill, Nebula, or Drax in Vol. 3, etc.?"
In reply, Gunn tweeted, "I didn't know much when I pitched. And I didn't know what was going to happen in IW & Endgame (Infinity Stones weren't even a part of the MCU until AFTER my first draft of Vol 1). But once I was writing I knew the arcs of all the major characters except Gamora, which changed."
In summary, Gunn had no idea that one or more of his beloved Guardians could be murdered by another group of writers and directors somewhere down the pipeline. It's also interesting to note how the stones weren't even a part of his original script, and yet the Power Stone (the purple one) is heavily featured in the final product.
This reminds us of two things. Firstly, it brings to mind what Marvel's president Kevin Feige once said about allowing creatives to primarily focus on making a solid movie before worrying about how it will integrate with a broader universe (his exact words can be found on Cheat Sheet). Secondly, it reveals yet again how hilariously unprepared Feige and his team were for Marvel Cinematic Universe to become so massive. In this case, though, given how unprecedented the process was, they've earned a little slack.