James Gunn Explains If He Was Unhappy About Gamora’s Story in Avengers: Endgame

The Guardians of the Galaxy have certainly been through a lot since they debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, going from a band of strangers to a pretty close found family. Of course, the events of both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame complicated that a little bit, particularly with Gamora (Zoe Saldana) being killed in order for Thanos (Josh Brolin) to get the Soul Stone. Through time-travel shenanigans, a younger version of Gamora later returned in Endgame, assisting in the final fight before leaving into the cosmos of 2023. During a recent fan Q&A on his Instagram Stories, Guardians writer/director James Gunn was asked if he was “unhappy” with Gamora’s current situation in the MCU. As he simply put it, “no,” because “it was all discussed beforehand.”

Interestingly, there’s a chance that that discussion didn’t necessarily involve Infinity War and Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo, as they previously claimed that they didn’t directly consult with Gunn about each character’s Infinity War fate.

“Marvel’s very good about allowing every director to have their freedom,” Joe said in an interview last year.

“Basically we set out a story we want to tell, and we present that to Marvel,” Anthony added. “And we got no pushback from that choice. We didn’t have a direct conversation with James about the Gamora choice, but I’m sure, certainly, Kevin did. And there was no pushback on it.”

Even with Gamora’s fate seemingly being worked out a while back, Saldana was surprisingly coy about what the future holds for her character going into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and beyond.

“It all depends,” Saldana said during a convention appearance earlier this summer. “The technical answer is it all depends on what Marvel and James Gunn desire to do with the Guardians and with Gamora’s fate. I would eventually, there’s a part of me that wants her to go back, find her way back to the Guardians but there’s also a part of me that wants to explore a bad Gamora. I’ve never seen that and she’s, you know, she’s considered the most lethal assassin, the most lethal woman in the galaxy so I would want to see what that wrath looks like also because it would just give me layers to sort of work on. But yeah, I want her to get back to the Guardians.”

What do you think of James Gunn‘s take on Gamora’s current MCU status? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall of 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022.