James Gunn opens up about some of his biggest MCU regrets. In a new interview, the Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director revealed he pushed back hard against Marvel’s plans to include Thor in the Guardians movies and admitted he wasn’t happy about setting up Adam Warlock in Vol. 2, calling it a move that nearly backfired.
Gunn Didn’t Want Thor in Guardians of the Galaxy 3
Speaking with EW while promoting Superman and confirming a post-credit scene for the movie, Gunn said his time at Marvel doing post-credit scenes has changed how he feels about them. Gunn revealed he wasn’t interested in including Thor in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, even after the Avengers: Endgame set it up.
“I said in the script notes: ‘I’m not gonna put him in. I don’t want to have Thor in the Guardians,’” Gunn revealed. “I don’t want to do a movie with Thor. I don’t understand the character that much. I love watching his movies and I love Chris Hemsworth as a guy. I don’t understand how to write that character.”
Despite Marvel’s plans, Gunn pushed back, choosing not to follow the crossover thread into what would end up as his last movie with Marvel. Ultimately, Taika Waititi would solve the problem and worked the Guardians into the start of Thor: Love and Thunder.
Regrets Over Adam Warlock Setup
Gunn also shared that teasing Adam Warlock in Guardians Vol. 2 was something he ended up regretting.
“I did not like what I did in Guardians 2 where we set up Adam Warlock, and we set up the Guardians of the Galaxy, and we set up all this s— that I didn’t necessarily plan on,” Gunn admitted.
According to Gunn, shoehorning Warlock into the third film felt like “fitting a square peg into a round hole.”
Post-Credit Scenes Can Backfire
Gunn explained that Marvel’s obsession with teasing future stories can cause problems for filmmakers, especially when those setups weren’t part of the original vision.
“Well, I guess I kind of planned on fulfilling that [Adam Warlock] promise, but you want to be careful about that. The way a post-credits scene works is a punch to the face, like, ‘Oh my God! Look at this,'” explained Gunn. “At times when you’re using it just solely to set something up, sometimes you’re screwing yourself over. It was not easy to work Adam Warlock into Guardians 3. I loved working with Will, and I liked dealing with the character, but at the end of the day, was he kind of fitting a weird square peg into a round hole? A little bit, yeah.”
While Warlock eventually made it into Guardians Vol. 3, it sounds like Gunn would have done things differently if he had full control from the start. Marvel seemingly forcing Gunn to use Adam Warlock could also mean there is a future for the character in the MCU.
Gunn’s Superman flies into theaters on July 11.
