James Gunn on Balancing on the Level of Violence High Evolutionary Did to Animals

In the commentary track for Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, filmmaker James Gunn revealed that he was very aware of the movie’s “dark edge,” and that while he didn’t want to completely back off of that tonal shift, he was conscious of it, and tried to make sure it didn’t take over the whole production. An example he used specifically was the High Evolutionary’s animal cruelty. It’s something audiences definitely struggled, with, and it wasn’t easy to watch, but Gunn explained that he knew actor Chukwudi Iwuji would sell the performance, and that as long as they reined the cruelty in a little, it would still resonate with audiences.

It’s worth noting that Gunn recorded the commentary track for the film almost immediately after it locked. That means, while prior Guardians movies may have taken the audience’s collective response into account, he could only speak about test audiences when talking about Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3.

“One of the things early audiences reacted to it, and maybe they reacted to it in theaters too…there’s a dark edge to the film,” Gunn said. “In the first two movies, there was a dark edge, but not quite so much. And we love all these little animals, but we also see some cruelty on the part of the High Evolutionary, which is one of the reasons why his character works so well. He’s such a fantastic actor, he has reasons for what he’s doing, at least in his own mind, but he ‘s also unspeakably cruel to little animals, which is something we hate. And so seeing shots like [a turtle-man’s incineration], where an animal’s being burned alive — even though it’s only half a second, we don’t see any of the real gore involved with it — can still be intense for audiences and can be intense for young people. That was something we didn’t want to shy away from, we didn’t want it to not be part of the movie, but we also didn’t want to milkit at all. It’s already a lot.”

During the movie’s press junket, Iwuji told ComicBook.com that he struggled with the High Evolutionary’s actions a bit, too, but that his costars made it a lot easier to process.

“What was helpful was that I was working with Sean Gunn a lot as opposed to any animals, so I was interacting with another actor,” Iwuji told ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis. “But I have to say, the first time I saw — I was doing an ADR or something and I saw a scene with Rocket’s eyes, I literally saw my dog’s eyes…I saw his face, and I was like, ‘I am going to Hell’ when I saw that. It really helped that when I was dealing with the animals, I wasn’t really dealing with any animals, because it would have been much harder that way. My agent couldn’t talk to me properly for like two days after a screening. She went home and hugged her dog, and was like, ‘I don’t know how I can talk to you.’”

In Marvel Studios‘ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 our beloved band of misfits are settling into life on Knowhere. But it isn’t long before their lives are upended by the echoes of Rocket’s turbulent past,” the synopsis reads. “Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him on a dangerous mission to save Rocket’s life-a mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.

The movie now in theaters, and releases today on digital video on demand platforms. It comes to Blu-ray and DVD in August.