Amanda Seyfried had the opportunity to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe by taking on a role in Guardians of the Galaxy, but she passed on the project for a reason that turned out to be completely wrong. While appearing on the podcast Happy Sad Confused, the actress recalled the time she was offered the chance to play Gamora in James Gunn’s first Marvel Cinematic Universe installment. Seyfried explained that she turned it down because she was leery about spending lots of time under green makeup, and she was concerned that Guardians of the Galaxy was poised to become the MCU’s first bomb. She opted to make A Million Ways to Die in the West instead.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“I was really scared of the idea of being stuck and painted a different color because of the amount of time [it takes],” Seyfried said. “I definitely got the offer for it and I mulled over it for a couple days. I didn’t want to live in London for six months out of the year … Let’s also remember that being a part of the first Marvel movie that bombs ain’t good for your career. I thought that because this was about a talking tree and a talking raccoon that it would be Marvel’s first bomb and me and Chris Pratt would never work again. I was wrong! But I was just being smart. It’s not brave.”
Released in 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy became one of Marvel’s biggest hits, turning the obscure comic book characters into household names. Bolstered by enthusiastic reviews, the film grossed $773.3 million worldwide and spawned two sequels. The Guardians became key figures of the Infinity Saga, also appearing in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. In the wake of Guardians of the Galaxy‘s success, Pratt rose to the top of the A-list and headlined the Jurassic World trilogy.
[RELATED – Marvel’s Chris Pratt Reveals Requirement for Star-Lord Return]
While A Million Ways to Die in the West earned a mixed reception, Seyfried has found plenty of success with other notable projects in recent years. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Marion Davies in David Fincher’s Mank and won an Emmy (among several other accolades) for playing Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout.
In retrospect, it’s easy to say Seyfried was wrong when she passed on Guardians of the Galaxy, but hindsight is 20/20. At the time that film was coming through the pipeline, it was far from a guaranteed success. Even though Marvel was riding high off The Avengers (which proved the shared universe concept worked), there were questions about whether or not Guardians of the Galaxy could be commercially viable. Making a Seth MacFarlane comedy was definitely the safer bet during this period. Few people could have predicted how Guardians of the Galaxy would turn out.
Zoe Saldaña’s tenure as Gamora was very memorable, but it would have been interesting to see how Seyfried would have tackled the role, bringing the no-nonsense warrior to life. She has the range to handle comedy and drama, so she would have been a good fit in the Guardians of the Galaxy universe. While she missed out on playing this particular character (barring some kind of multiverse variant casting), perhaps Seyfried will eventually take on a different comic book part down the line. Gunn is now overseeing the DC Universe, which has a plethora of movies and TV shows in development. Knowing what she knows now about Gunn’s vision, Seyfried might be willing to jump onboard.
