Guardians of the Galaxy’s Gamora Was Almost Blue in the MCU

James Gunn, the director of Guardians of the Galaxy and the upcoming The Suicide Squad, often answers fan questions on social media. This week, he explained to one Marvel fan why Drax (Dave Bautista) is grey instead of green like in the comics. “Because there were enough green people in the MCU and green is the most difficult color to get to look like actual skin,” Gunn explained. “We tested a lot of colors and the grey simply looked best for the character.” Due to the pesky nature of working work green, Gunn also revealed that Gamora (Zoe Saldana) was almost blue.

“Now I’m wondering about the Gamora skin? How hard was it to get to it, color and texture wise?,” @marianogv asked. “The worst. A total pain. I almost turned her blue. But, you know, Avatar vibes,” Gunn replied. Of course, Saldana plays Neytiri, a blue character, in Avatar. You can check out Gunn’s tweets below:

This is not the only recent post that revealed Gamora almost looked different. Earlier this month, Saldana shared that her character’s eyes were almost green in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Would you believe that Gamora almost had green eyes? In one of the many camera tests, we had @jamesgunn wanted to see how I looked with green eyes as Gamora. Eventually, he changed his mind about that, and I was so grateful that he did because I found these contacts to be so uncomfortable. My heart went out to @davebautista and @karengillan who had to wear contacts for Drax and Nebula. But their characters looked amazing in them, plus they’re true professionals! Reminiscing a lot lately as we gear up to go back for another Guardians adventure! #gotg3,” Saldana wrote.

Last year, Gunn took to Twitter to share that Saldana was always his choice to play Gamora. “So, Zoe Saldana was my number on choice for Gamora,” Gunn revealed. “I think that’s the only casting idea in my pitch that ended up happening (the role of Yondu – which I wrote for [Michael] Rooker – wasn’t written yet.)”

Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 are now streaming on Disney+. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is expected to be released on Disney+ during the 2022 holidays, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled to be released in theatres on May 23, 2023.