Here's How James Gunn Assembles His 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Soundtracks

Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 writer and director James Gunn has opened up about the series' use of music on the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Blu-ray commentary track, explaining his process for selecting the classic songs that make it onto the Awesome Mix soundtracks.

"The truth is I have a list of about 500 songs that I think of as 'Meredith Quill songs.' Songs she would really love," Gunn said of Peter Quill's (Chris Pratt) deceased mother. "And in that list I keep that on files on my computer, and as I'm writing the screenplay — actually as I'm writing the treatment before the screenplay — I'll go through it and find songs that fit a moment or a place that needs a song, and I'll search out a song that will fit the moment."

Awesome Mix and Awesome Mix Vol. 2 were curated by Meredith (Laura Haddock) as gifts for her son, and the cassette tapes would become the space rogue's most prized possessions. The mixes could only use songs released before her death in 1988, but Gunn clearly had no problem amassing a large collection of tracks suitable for his pair of Marvel Studios productions.

Gunn further explained he also burns physical copies of the mix to accompany the treatment he turns into the studio.

"Sometimes I'll go outside of that list of 500 songs and go a little bit deeper and find something that is more appropriate, which I'll do at times, but I write them all into the treatment," he said. "Then when I give everyone that original story, I'll give that story to Marvel and I'll give them a compact disc, an old school compact disc with the songs on it, so that they can listen to all of the music along with the treatment and know exactly what we're getting into."

After the release of Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, Gunn said in a Facebook post he gave leading man Chris Pratt a mixed CD of his own "that he could listen to endlessly, so he'd know it backwards and forwards, just as Quill knew the tape his mom gave him."

At the end of Vol. 2 — spoiler warning — Peter is gifted a Zune, a digital music player with music curated by the now deceased Yondu (Michael Rooker), Peter's "daddy." Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" — one of the Zune's impressive 300 songs — plays over Yondu's funeral, and the music player will serve as a spiritual Awesome Mix Vol. 3 moving forward. With music such an integral part of the series, expect the Zune's contents to play a major thematic role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, once again scripted and directed by Gunn.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is now available to own on home media, and Star-Lord, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) will crossover with the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe when they join the Avengers to take on Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War, in theaters May 4, 2018.