Zoe Saldaña Says She Was "Bitter" Going Into Filming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
While speaking with the press about her new Netflix series From Scratch, Guardians of the Galaxy star Zoe Saldaña was asked to tackle the elephant in the room: her impending departure from the Guardians franchise. The MCU star has one of the most complicated arcs of any Guardian, since the character she has built for two movies was murdered in Avengers: Infinity Game, leaving James Gunn with a version of Gamora who is essentially a blank slate and forcing both the filmmaker and actor to figure out how to wrap her story up in a way that's satisfying for the audience, but still makes sense to the character.
The Guardians series could feasibly continue on without Gunn, who recently accepted a role running Marvel's cross-town rival DC Studios, but it feels more likely that it will get a break, at least temporarily. Most of the cast doesn't seem to be interested in doing a version of Guardians without Gunn.
"[Filming] started bitter in the beginning cause obviously you're anticipating the end, but I'm just so happy that once again I got to work with great people," Saldaña told Entertainment Weekly. "I had an evolution that I witnessed of myself, but also my director and my cast. I just felt very blessed and grateful. It was a very sweet departure, I have to say."
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 is coming next year, but before that, November will see most of the cast return in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. The show will center on the team trying to cheer up Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), who is still reeling from the loss of the Gamora he knew and loved. That project was conceived shortly before it went into production, giving it a more Marvel-like turnaround time than the long gestation of Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, which was originally scheduled for release in May of 2020. That film was delayed when Gunn was briefly fired from the project in 2018, and then jumped on board The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker before being hired back to finish Guardians.
Inspired by the memoir, From Scratch is a cross-cultural love story that follows Amahle "Amy" Wheeler (played by Zoe Saldaña) an American student studying abroad in Italy, as she meets and falls in love with Lino, a Sicilian chef. Their whirlwind romance faces many unforeseen challenges, including their very different cultural backgrounds; true to real life, it is also infused with lightheartedness and moments of humor that exist alongside the more serious ones. But when Lino is faced with unimaginable health challenges and the couple's future is threatened, the two families come together to create an extended family unlike any they could have imagined, proving that love crosses all borders.