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Most people feel like they probably know everything there is to know about the film, but in listening to the director’s commentary track on the Guardians Blu-ray — available today — we did hear a number of things that were, at least, new to us.
This is mostly just cool trivia rather than anything too substantive, but check ’em out below, let us know how much of this you already know and if you listened to the track, what important things we didn’t include.
The woman who plays Meredith Quill had a bit role as a fan in Captain America: The First Avenger, who wanted Cap’s autograph, but Gunn assures listeners there’s no connection…unless somebody wants to make one down the road, in which case it would probably be Peter’s great-grandmother or something.
Dr. Fitzgibbon
Named for a personal friend of Gunn’s, there’s a Fitzgibbon in every one of his films. Here, it pretty much had to be the doctor during Meredith Quill’s hospital stay since there were very few other options once the movie got to space.
Marvel logo
The logo coming after the cold open instead of before was actually to help ease the transition between the ’80s and the current day, which test audiences felt was somewhat jarring.
Almost all fo the Sakkaran voices were done by James Gunn and his assistant Simon Hatt.
They had to melt down the Kyln
In order to be able to afford the massive set, they had to melt down the steel after the fact and sell it back. So if we see the Kyln in any sequels it will likely look a little different.
Emmet Scanlan
Gunn and Scanlan met on a double date. Neither relationship lasted more than another date or two, but the pair have stayed buddies.
Jackson Pollack
The “Jackson Pollack painting” line wasn’t meant to stay in the movie. They got “stuck with it” after it got the biggest laugh at the one test screening that they meant to sneak it into for fun.
On bringing telepathic dog and Knowhere proprietor Cosmo into future films in a larger capacity, Gunn expressed reservations: “It’s a difficult feat because Cosmo is a real dog with real fur and to have a real dog with real fur next to a CGI raccoon with CGI fur, is not a great thing to do for Rocket.” He went on to say he was sorry to any fans he was disappointing with those comments.
He wasn’t especially proud of this ONE action beat
Mostly, it seemed like Gunn was having fun watching the movie, and reveling in the love he’s received from fans and critics about it. If there was one place that stuck out as being a place where he said he wasn’t happy with the shot, it was when Lee Pace had to one-hand flip Dave Bautista during the battle between Ronan and Drax. He said that there were just concept/execution problems and that the shot didn’t look quite the way he’d hoped.
Kevin Bacon was Chris Pratt’s idea
While James Gunn is friends with Kevin Bacon, it was franchise star Chris Pratt who came to Gunn with the idea that Footloose would be a kind of legend or mythology for Peter Quill. Gunn took it from there.
The concept of trying to stop the enemies before they make it to the surface of Xandar during the spaceship dogfight are inspired by the classic video game Space Invaders, and were referred to as such in the script.
Zoe Saldana cried when Groot died
In spite of the fact that Groot wasn’t even really there, the actress who played Gamora looked up at him and shed a tear when they were filming the scene with Groot’s sacrifice
We are Groot
“We are Groot” was originally written for another scene, and was meant to be the cap of a speech. Instead, it ended up being used just before his death.
Even Gunn isn’t 100% sure Yondu knew about the Orb
He says you’ll have to ask Michael Rooker. He does seem, however, about 90% sure, saying at the end of the scene where Yondu takes the Orb, “He knows — he knows!”
And a little Judge Dredd reference
During the credits, Gunn notes, “It really takes more than a village — it takes a Mega-City to make a movie like this.”
