Marvel Creative Committee Didn’t Like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s Biggest Twist

Before the Marvel Studios Parliament was a thing made up of the outfit’s leading producers, the Kevin Feige-led production house worked alongside the Marvel Creative Committee, a product of Marvel Entertainment. Made up of comic creators and other movie executives, the group apparently didn’t like a major part of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and tried to tell Guardians filmmakers audiences wouldn’t like it either.

In the new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s said the Creative Committee offered notes about being “turned off” by Ego’s (Kurt Russell) villainous twist.

“The thinking was, when you tell your fan base that Kurt Russell and Chris Pratt are going to be playing father and son roles—two beloved actors from different generations who have hit action-comidies on their resumes—you’re signaling that they’re in for a great time,” the book says.

It quickly adds, “Yet Russell was as sure of the twist as Marvel Studios, [James] Gunn, and Pratt were.”

The Creative Committee was disbanded in 2017 as Marvel Studios executives were relocated under the Walt Disney Studios umbrella. Now the Marvel Studios Parliament serves a similar role, except it’s made up of producers who grew their careers through the studio, rather than outside filmmakers.

“It’s not really a genre thing or a speciality thing. We all sort of go off together and talk about who wants to do what and what’s coming up, and we all kind of end up working on stuff we’re excited about,” Marvel Studios producer and Parliament member Jonathan Schwartz previously told Murphy’s Multiverse of the group’s decision-making process.

He added, “I just like martial arts movies and Shang-Chi felt like the right character to bring a martial arts movie to life, and so that was that I put my hand up and said I wanted to do Shang-Chi. That’s more or less the way it tends to happen, there’s a character we all want to do, or there’s a character one of us one of us wants to do, and we just talk about it and divide it up and things generally work out where people get to work on things they’re excited about.”

The first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies are now streaming on Disney+ while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is due to hit theaters May 5, 2023. I Am Groot and the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special have yet to receive release dates.

What members of the Guardians would you like to see spin-off shows of? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!