Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 served as the send-off of this iteration of the cosmic team, with some characters setting apart on their own journey by the end of the film. As it turns out, one of the beloved space pirates was nearly left out of the movie entirely due to their relation to the others. According to Guardians helmer James Gunn, he “toyed” with the idea of not including Zoe Saldaña’s Gamora in the threequel.
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“That was a possibility, yes,” Gunn said in a new sit-down with the New York Times. “[Peter] would be dealing with her loss, but she wouldn’t come back and confront him in this different way. I toyed with it a lot as I was writing the script.”
Because this version of Gamora isn’t the same one that appeared in the franchise’s first two films and in Avengers: Infinity War, Gunn opted to keep her in the film to show how Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) reacts to the change in the character’s status quo.
“It’s something we do a lot in relationships anyway: We expect someone who reminds us of somebody from the past to be that somebody from the past,” the filmmaker added. “Especially with women, Peter Quill defines people around him to suit his own needs as opposed to really looking and seeing who they actually are as human beings. And Gamora is just not the same Gamora. She’s a different person.”
James Gunn wrote and directed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The movie stars 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.