Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2: James Gunn Promises Strong Female Characters

Earlier this week, in recognition of the International Day of the Girl, Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker James Gunn took to social media to post a message for fans promising the best possible treatment of his female protagonists in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

"Great male characters, from Michael Corleone to Marty McFly to Han Solo to the Joker, are never perfect and never one-dimensional. They are sometimes heroic and sometimes villainous and often deeply flawed. But they always reflect the fullness of the world around us. I do not think that is true of the majority of female characters in films," Gunn wrote in the Facebook post embedded below. "I have done my best, as a male writer, with varying degrees of success, to bring female characters and female stories to the forefront....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."

The Bechdel-Wallace Test, named for cartoonist Allison Bechdel and her friend Liz Wallace, is considered the bare minimum standard for writing women in fiction. The test asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women, who talk to each other about something other than a man. It started out as a joke in a strip by Bechdel, but people took to the idea and it became a kind of cultural meme.

This isn't Gunn's first foray into exploring the gender politics of Guardians of the Galaxy. He took the side of consumers upset that Disney excluded Gamora from much of the merchandising when the first movie came out, and has said that as a result of that dissatisfaction, he's taking a more active role in helping to craft the merchandise and marketing for the sequel.

Doctor Strange opens November 4, 2016; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – May 5, 2017; Spider-Man: Homecoming – July 7, 2017; Thor: Ragnarok – November 3, 2017; Black Panther – February 16, 2018; Avengers: Infinity War – May 4, 2018; Ant-Man and the Wasp – July 6, 2018; and Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019.