With Marvel Studios latest film, director James Gunn greatly expanded the cosmos to include many beloved characters from the comic books.
Videos by ComicBook.com
If you haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, you might want to click away unless you don’t mind being spoiled because we’re talking about a lot of different plot points that occurred in the movie.
Sure, we might have gotten confirmation of the Celestials, finally saw the big screen debut of the Watchers, and even caught another glimpse of the Continued Adventures Of Howard The Duck. But even with all of these cameos, few characters stuck out like Gunn’s homage to the original Guardians of the Galaxy from the ’70s Marvel Comics series.
Yondu Udonta, of course, played the biggest role in the series. But from the first Guardians Of The Galaxy film it became pretty apparent that Michael Rooker’s version of the character had many key differences from his comic book counterpart.
Sure, they both have blue skin, red mohawks, and a magic arrow, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Yondu was slightly despicable, bordering the line of being a bad person. In fact his actions have resulted in his character being kicked out from under the umbrella of the main Ravagers—which seems to be a franchise consisting of smaller factions—due to the fact that he’d kidnap kids for money.
This explains why they abducted Peter Quill in the beginning of the first movie and Yondu’s change of heart when he eventually finds out why Ego The Living Planet needed the children.
But these events seem to indicate that the original Guardians of the Galaxy from the comics were in fact a team in the MCU, they just didn’t go by that name. That point is made when Sylvester Stallone shows up in the beginning as Stakar AKA Starhawk, expressing his disdain and heartbreak over Yondu’s actions.
But in the end, Yondu has a moment of redemption in the eyes of his surrogate son and his former teammates, which brings the original Ravagers back together.
James Gunn and Kevin Feige Comment On The Original Guardians’ Fate
After being heavily teased both during Yondu’s funeral and one of the many post-credits scenes, it’s safe to wonder if we’re ever going to see these characters again.
Was it just a one-off gag to get people talking or is there a plan for the original Guardians in Marvel Studios’ future?
Collider spoke with both the Marvel Studios’ boss Kevin Feige and the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 James Gunn to determine whether or not the characters would be featured in another film, or perhaps begin their own not-so-little franchise of movies.
Gunn played hopeful but put the onus on other filmmakers. “With all of the post-credit scenes in this movie, they’re all funny and fun, and most of them are things that we hope to see continuing on in the MCU, whether that’s in supporting roles in future movies, or whatever,” he said. “I think it would be great to see those things and those characters show up.”
Feige echoed those sentiments:
It’s always a bit of both. It’s always, we do it because it’s fun in the moment and it’s fun as a potential sneak of what’s to come. I think all things being equal, I think James and everybody at Marvel would love to see the continued adventures in some aspect, whether it’s a large pat in a future movie or as James just said to somebody else, a Howard the Duck level appearance down the line of any or all of those original guardians. But really the most important immediate thing for us really just to establish and showcase that yes, those original Guardians, though they may never call themselves that in our movie mythology, but they exist.
It was a nice, low-key debut for the predecessors to the current team of Guardians, and we hope to see this group together in the future.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
This roster is almost a dream-team itself, consisting of Stallone as Starhawk, Ving Rhames as Charlie 27, Miley Cyrus as the voice of Mainframe, Michelle Yeoh as Aleta Ogord, and Michael Rosenbaum as Martinex.
Before the movie came out, no one really expected to see such a vast roster even hinted at much less debuting on screen. But the O.G.s stood out, making one of the funnest cameos in a long list of post-credits scenes.
But these aren’t the Guardians as we typically know them—they’re Ravagers. That’s made apparent by Starhawk’s own proclamation at the end of their reunion scenes: “Let’s go steal some shit.”
Whether they pop up in another franchise, the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie, or even get their own feature to potentially kickstart a new franchise, we’ll be waiting. Because there’s no way a movie starring Rambo, Marcellus Wallace, Hannah Montana, and Lex Luthor as teammates heisting valuable artifacts across the vastness of the cosmos will not be entertaining.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is in theaters now. Did you enjoy the latest volume of the Awesome Mix? Let us know with your vote in the Movie Database below!
MORE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 NEWS: Fan Theory: Ego is the Missing Easter Egg / Adorable Baby Groot Concept Art / New Teenage Groot Funko POP Revealed / Vin Diesel Reveals The Inspiration Behind Baby Groot’s Voice
Set to the backdrop of ‘Awesome Mixtape #2,’ Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel cinematic universe continues to expand.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is written and directed by James Gunn and stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell.
