GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Director James Gunn Says He Almost Killed Gamora Off in Vol. 2

As we are approaching the final chapter in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy that has been so thoughtfully crafted by director James Gunn, some may wonder how the filmmaker was able to craft a franchise that spanned not only three feature films, but also jumped into the other Marvel movies alongside it. Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame both had major ramifications for the Guardians, so it truly mattered what both Gunn and the Avengers directors (The Russo Brothers) had planned, as the films intersected.

As it turns out, Gunn also wasn’t completely sure how things were going to play out from the beginning. He almost killed off Gamora in the second Guardians film! ComicBook caught up with Gunn at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 junket, and they asked him about Gamora’s character, who died in Infinity War, and came back in Endgame as a whole new person. Gunn explained:

"So things always change and you never know. But Gamora almost died in Vol. 2. I knew from the beginning Zoe only wanted to play the character for so many years, and she's been very honest saying that she's done [after this]. And so I was going to have her die. I thought she was the one that was going to sacrifice herself, and Quill was going to learn about himself as opposed to in the second movie, and I thought different of it. I was kind of talked out of it by Kevin [Feige] and Lou [D'Esposito], and then it just didn't work that well. It didn't feel right, it felt much more right to go where we go in that movie. That seemed what was correct for the story. I think at the time I was afraid of killing Michael Rooker because he's my friend.

"So I felt bad about killing Rooker and I didn't want to do that. But that was where the story naturally progressed to. So a lot of the things that I was planning on dealing with, I dealt with through what the Russos did, which they called me up and said, 'We're thinking about this, does this work? Can you work with this?' And I went, 'Got, yeah. I really can.' And I think it works really well for the third movie."

The Infinity Saga just really came together in a perfect way. I think that’s why MCU President Kevin Feige gets so much credit, because across the films and all the different writers and directors, he oversaw it all, and it was totally cohesive.

It will be interesting to see how the Guardians wrap up their galactic adventures. The reviews have been stellar, so I can’t wait to see what happens.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theatres this Friday, May 5th.