James Gunn admits he was reluctant to direct ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’.
The director has helmed two movies based around the Marvel comic book characters and is already working on the third instalment which will be released after the characters join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.
Despite the huge success both ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ films have enjoyed, Gunn is honest enough to say he wasn’t sure the intergalactic squad would resonate with audiences when the idea was first pitched to him.
Speaking to CinemaBlend, Gunn said: "I know, for me, when I first was pitched ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, it was something that I frankly, during my first hearing of it, I thought it was not a good idea.
"I thought it was a talking raccoon with these strange creatures, I thought it was too weird. I thought it sounded to me, like when they first pitched it to me, as if it was Bugs Bunny in the middle of ‘The Avengers’ – and I didn’t think it was something that was going to work."
Gunn changed his mind about the project once he began to think about the back story and motivation of the fantastical characters.
He said: "As I was driving home, I thought ‘OK, well let’s just take a moment to think about this’ If there was such a thing as a talking raccoon what would it be? How could it come to be?
"And I actually found the answers to these questions were these incredibly sad answers. To me, that was the foundation of the entire ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Guardians-verse."
The ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ franchise follows Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) who travels around space with his crew which includes Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) taking on missions defending the galaxy from evil forces.
Although they have their own universe the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ will be teaming up with the Earth-bound Avengers to fight against the mad titan Thanos in the third ‘Avengers’ movie which comes out in 2018.
James Gunn was reluctant to direct Guardians of the Galaxy
