Guardians of the Galaxy: James Gunn Reveals Fun Secrets During Quarantine Watch Party

On Tuesday night, ComicBook.com’s Quarantine Watch Party played host to Guardians of the Galaxy and its director James Gunn. Several cast and crew members popped in at various moments throughout, including Kraglin/Rocket actor Sean Gunn, Nebula actress Karen Gillan, and a later comment from Star-Lord himself Chris Pratt. In participating in the Quarantine Watch Party, Gunn shared details from his experience on the set of the film and his own perspective of certain scenes which hasn ever been revealed before. It was a two-hour education fest about one of Marvel’s best movies and changed how viewers look at some of the sequences!

Gunn is known well to his fans for his enthusiastic passion for the Guardians characters and his cast and crew let their love for him be heard on Tuesday night. Fans did the same, sharing thousands of tweets and creating a Worldwide trend on Twitter during the event. Despite being isolated in our homes during a time of uncertainty, Quarantine Watch Party provided an outlet where fans could come together to experience and celebrate something they love.

Of course, it came with some fun new facts and information from Gunn throughout the event, and we have rounded up some of his best tweets from the Quarantine Watch Party below!

The Opening

If you think the emotional opening moments of Guardians of the Galaxy look a bit different than the rest of the movie, you’re right. Gunn intentionally set the sequence apart from the later parts of the film by using different lenses on his cameras. 

Doggy Cameo

By now, many fans know that James Gunn loves his animals. Some are aware of this, but Gunn shared once again that his dog Von Spears appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy. About six minutes into the movie, Von Spears can be seen in holographic form in the sequence where Star-Lord looks out at Morag. The pup even had his own cast member chair on set. 

Rocket in Guardians Vol. 3

Speaking of loving animals, Gunn is really going to get to showcase his love of Rocket Raccon in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 if this tease is any indication. “A lot of this stuff,” meaning the teases of his scarring and implants revealed when he was brought into the Kiln prison, “sets up what I’ve been planning for Rocket all along.”

Like the rest of the Guardians roster, Rocket has a troubled past and Gunn loves adding a humanity to the character.

Underwater Nightmare

Some of the most impressive bits in Guardians of the Galaxy give an impression of weightlessness from being in space. Those sequence were shot underwater, Gunn revealed, and it was apparently not as much fun as one may have thought. 

It’s All Connected

After appearing briefly in the post-credits scene of The Avengers, Thanos did not appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe again until he had a conversation with Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy. Despite the inclusion of the character which was a centerpiece of Marvel’s Infinity Saga being used to set up a story for the future, Gunn did not feel any creative restrictions.

In fact, Gunn has so much freedom, he totally made up the Collector’s history lesson about the Infinity Stones, which now has become an integral part of the MCU’s mythology.

Changing Colors

Speaking of the Infinity Stones, Gunn revealed that Ronan’s Power Stone was originally going to be red. Marvel had the film change it to purple as the Reality Stone had recently debuted in Thor: The Dark World and was read in that film. If only Marvel knew Loki’s scepter had th Mind Stone, it could have been yellow! 

A Little Improv

Although Gunn noted that the film was almost entirely scripted, he did admit there we a couple of improv spots along the way. One of them became a highlight of movie, seeing Sean Gunn stand up as Rocket Raccoon among the rest of the roster and declare them to be “a bunch of jackasses standing in a circle.”

Pratt also improvised one bit but allowed Gunn to think it was an accident until recently. 

Better Effort

Although the Nova Corps was always going to be defeated by Ronan and his Dark Aster ship, it sounds like it wasn’t always in such dramatic fashion. Gunn revealed that the Nova Corps went down a little too easily in an earlier draft of the movie so he went back and added their interlocking ship efforts later on. 

Favorite Moment

Gunn pointed out earlier in the movie that each member of the Guardians of the Galaxy has a troubled past except for Drax. Shortly after losing his best friend Groot, Rocket sat with the sticks on the ground and was pet lovingly by Drax. It was the first moment Rocket had been shown physical affection in his entire life and he accepted it. Gunn called it his “favorite moment.”

True Favorite

While Gunn named a few parts of his excellent movie to be favorites, he did remind everybody of what’s truly important right now:  family. Guardians of the Galaxy is very much a story of family and, for Gunn, family claims his true favorite moment in real life. 

Thank you so much to Mr. Gunn for joining the Quarantine Watch Party, encouraging everyone to stay home yet feel connected in celebrating his work which many of us adore. Be sure to stay tuned for more events over the next month and feel free to drop your suggestions in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram and Twitter.