Guardians of the Galaxy's James Gunn Reveals Scene He "Begged" Marvel to Include in Avengers: Infinity War
One interesting aspect of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is that the Gamora (Zoe Saldana) in the film is a different Gamora than the one in the first two movies. That's because the original Gamora dies in Avengers: Infinity War and is replaced by a Gamora from earlier in her timeline, before she meets Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy, in Avengers: Endgame. Gunn was more than happy to let Joe and Anthony Russo kill Gamora in their Avengers movies since Gunn backed out of doing it himself in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. However, Gunn did request that Marvel include one other moment with Gamora in the movie.
"I begged them to have that kiss in the movie, because it was necessary to really cement their relationship," Gunn tells The New York Times. "I had a kiss in Vol. 2 that I cut — it was awesome, but it came in a weird time. At the end of Vol. 2, you establish the fact that they have feelings for each other pretty distinctly, but in "Infinity War," we needed to establish that they were now boyfriend-girlfriend and this was a normal thing for them. It wasn't really about the kiss, it was about showing that they were now a couple."
Why Didn't James Gunn Kill Gamora In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?
Speaking to ComicBook.com, Gunn explained why he chose not to kill Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. "So things always change and you never know. But Gamora almost died in Vol. 2," Gunn explained. "I knew from the beginning Zoe only wanted to play the character for so many years, and she's been very honest saying that she's done [after this]. And so I was going to have her die. I thought she was the one that was going to sacrifice herself, and Quill was going to learn about himself as opposed to in the second movie, and I thought different of it. I was kind of talked out of it by Kevin [Feige] and Lou [D'Esposito], and then it just didn't work that well. It didn't feel right, it felt much more right to go where we go in that movie. That seemed what was correct for the story. I think at the time I was afraid of killing Michael Rooker because he's my friend."
"So I felt bad about killing Rooker and I didn't want to do that. But that was where the story naturally progressed to," he continued. "So a lot of the things that I was planning on dealing with, I dealt with through what the Russos did, which they called me up and said, 'We're thinking about this, does this work? Can you work with this?' And I went, 'God, yeah. I really can.' And I think it works really well for the third movie."
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Cast
The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 synopsis reads, "Still reeling from the loss of Gamora, Peter Quill must rally his team to defend the universe and protect one of their own. If the mission is not completely successful, it could possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them."
James Gunn wrote and directed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The movie star Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Zoe Saldaña as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, with Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot and Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, Sean Gunn as Kraglin, Chukwudi Iwuji as The High Evolutionary, Will Poulter as Adam Warlock, and Maria Bakalova as the voice of Cosmo.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now playing in movie theaters.