James Gunn Talks About The Female Roles in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2.

There have been a couple of solid female roles in the Marvel Studios filmography, but there's always room for improvement, and it sounds like that's exactly what writer/director James Gunn has done from Guardians of the Galaxy to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I somehow missed this the other day (apologies for the delay), but the filmmaker took to Facebook a couple of days ago and spoke out about how he's written fully-rounded female roles in his upcoming sequel. Here are a few snippets of that post:

Women all over the world have been pushed to the sidelines in the interests of men, and their personhood is often forgotten or delegitimized. This is true in the realms of politics and education and religion. But it is also true in the realm of STORIES. That is my personal area of expertise, and that is where I believe women – and girls – deserve the fullness of character that men have often received...

I am sick of stories where there are a bunch of fully realized male characters and one female character, whose primary characteristic is simply being "the girl” or the personality-less object of some man’s affections. I’m not sick of this because I’m politically correct – those of you who know me know I am far from that – but because it’s boring, and it’s b.s. Likewise, I don’t think only making female characters “strong” is a fix either - you see her all the time these days, the perfect female warrior, who is a reaction to the stories of the past, but who is equally as boring and one-dimensional...

I have done my best, as a male writer, with varying degrees of success, to bring female characters and female stories to the forefront. Whether they're protagonists like Ana in Dawn of the Dead or Starla in Slither, comedy relief like Deadly Girl, Nightbird, and Power Chick in The Specials, or the insane, scene-stealing roles usually reserved for men, like Libby in SUPER. And I can’t wait for you all to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, with Gamora, Nebula, and Mantis in action, where we not only pass the Bechdel test, but run over it and back up over it again and again in an eighteen-wheeler truck, and where their stories and the men’s stories don’t come at the expense of each other, but are interwoven in a way to strengthen and optimize all of them.

I'm glad to hear the female characters will be a bit more in the forefront this time around, because I felt like Gamora and Nebula were slightly pushed to the side a little in the previous film. I realize it was an ensemble, but it would have been nice to have seen just a bit more of them and their story and conflicted relationship (they are the daughters of Thanos, after all). In any case, this just makes me want to see his movie even more now, and I was already incredibly excited about it. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters on May 5, 2017.