We’re still a year away from James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, but anticipation grows ever higher. Comic book readers are quivering in excitement over a more obscure group of heroes getting the big budget, big screen treatment. Non-comic book readers are scratching their heads, wondering what the hell is up with that raccoon.
Well, in an upcoming Empire Magazine interview (scooped in advance by Comic Book Movie), Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige has begun doling out all the details on Marvel’s weirdest upcoming movie. Those who don’t know the characters can now be quickly and easily filled in. Those who already know the characters will notice Feige making a few interesting changes.
First, Feige introduces the five motley space-farers who make up the core team:
“Rocket has been genetically and mechanically altered, he’s an experiment from one part of the galaxy. Groot is a species that happens to look like trees look, and is quite communicative if you can understand the different inflections in the way he says ‘I am Groot.’ Peter Quill left Earth in the mid’80s, but when we meet back up with him he’s very much a citizen of the universe. Drax has one goal and one goal only, which is to kill Ronan because of a past tragedy. When we meet Gamora, she’s a bad guy working with Ronan and Nebula and Korath, and by extension for Thanos. Gamora doesn’t necessarily like doing that anymore, and tries to find a new path for herself. But she has a reputation as the deadliest woman in the galaxy that people aren’t greeting her with open arms.”
With this, we can confirm that Vin Diesel, who voices Groot, will only be saying three words throughout the entire film (albeit with some different inflections). Gamora (Zoe Saldana) will start off as a villain before joining the team at some point. And Drax (Dave Bautista) has been slightly altered from his comic book incarnation- normally, he’s obsessively on the hunt for the villain Thanos (that big purple fella grinning in the credits for The Avengers), but it looks like Feige and Gunn are siccing him on a slightly smaller villain to start.
And Feige had a bit more to say on balancing the film’s long list of villains (Lee Pace and Djimon Honsou as Thanos’ allies Ronan and Korath, Benicio del Toro as the immortal being the Collector, and the yet-to-be-cast Thanos).
“Ronan the Accuser is very much the main bad guy. And Thanos is lurking above it all. You will learn more about Thanos in Guardians. For sure. Certainly you’ll get more than the one turn around and smirk. You’ll get much more than that.”
Cast, story, inclusion in the greater Marvel universe – things are really starting to come together for Guardians of the Galaxy.
