All good things must come to an end. And James Gunn accepted this with the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise.
Based on the Marvel Comics superhero team, the star-studded cast augmented the appeal of the movies.
The third and final instalment recently became available for streaming on Disney+.
The cast includes Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/ Star-Lord), Zoe Saldaña (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Vin Diesel (Groot), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), Will Poulter (Adam Warlock), Sean Gunn (Kraglin), Chukwudi Iwuji (High Evolutionary), Nathan Fillion (Master Karja) and Sylvester Stallone (Stakar Ogord).
This time around, Peter Quill, who is in a funk over losing Gamora, has to put his emotions aside to defend the universe and one of their own in a life-or-death mission.
At a media junket, some of the cast, director and writer Gunn as well as producer Kevin Feige offered insight into the final instalment.
The franchise surpassed James’s expectations when he took on the project 12 years ago.
He shared: “I don't think I could've dreamed that. I mean, I could've dreamed it. I'm not going to lie. Like, I had hopes. I felt really good about it from the beginning. I felt like we were doing something different.
“I felt like, you know, the world kind of needed a space fantasy that was different from the ones we had seen before. So, I was very pleasantly surprised when my greatest hopes did come true.
“But I think in terms of the story that we were telling over the three movies, I think that I did have sort of a sense of how it was gonna go from the beginning.”
He added that the films had changed him.
Reflecting on his fondest memories with the films, James admitted: “So, my main memories are not going to the premieres or, you know, going on these press junkets. It's being on set and having the little moments. It's doing bits with Chris in between sets.
“It's, you know, talking to Sean. Watching, you know, Chuk, turn in an amazing performance. Goofing around with Pom, wondering what the hell she's talking about.”
Pratt unpacked his character’s emotional state. And Star-Lord has been through the gamut of emotions with his feisty girlfriend Gamora.
Pratt revealed: “He's lost. He's definitely lost. And yeah. He's a guy and there's a wonderful monologue that Batista gives that, you know, comes from Mantis that Quill is a guy who needs to learn how to swim.
“He's been hopping from lily pad to lily pad, woman to woman, and relationship to relationship.
“I think that's a pretty human condition. I think oftentimes we find ourselves in our relationships or in the affiliations we have with a team or a family or whatever. And he has been lost.
“So, yeah, in the beginning, he was running away from the death of his mother, but he got to pretend to be this character based on these pop culture icons of his childhood of the late '80s.
“And so, he was dancing around, but all of that was really, he had found himself there. But it was kinda BS, you know? And then he found himself with the Guardians of the Galaxy. And then he thought he could find himself with who his father was.”
Pratt continued: “So, he's a guy who's constantly been searching for who he is. And then he found it again in his relationship with Gamora.
“And so, when that's stripped away from him, he's a guy who's realising that all of these various people that he's found that as Quill, none of them have been the real him. And so, he is, he's lost.
“And that probably does mean that he's sad.”
Meanwhile, Gillan defended Nebula when she was referred to as “terrible”.
She added: “I wouldn't say terrible. Misunderstood. Yeah, she was pretty bitter. I think, you know, post-Thanos being eliminated from her life, she's starting to flourish a little bit more and she's starting to have a lighter personality and she's a little more willing to show vulnerability.”
With fans so invested in the film’s lore, Feige was asked if that added to the pressures.
He responded: “It always does. It always makes me nervous. But the goal has always been to do justice to the audience members who have loved these characters their whole lives, and to audience members who've never heard of these characters, or who heard of them for the first time in the trailer or in the poster.
“Which, for Guardians in particular, was certainly the majority of the audience.
“Now on the flip side of that, there are people who go, ‘Well, people don't really know the Guardians, so you really have a lot of leeway to do new things’, which you do, but James was constantly going to the comics and constantly referring to the comics and constantly building off of the storylines.
“So, people who did know these characters from the more recent run at the time, or the early run, saw things they could get excited about. And just as important, people who never heard of this crazy spaceman with a tree and a raccoon.”
As for Mantis being a fan favourite, Klementieff admitted: “Oh my God. I mean, for me, it's not Mantis. It's like, Mantis and James Gunn. James changed my life. I loved playing this character and I'm so grateful for James to have, you know, given me this opportunity.
“And to get to play with all these incredible actors. And I think each character, they complete each other, too, you know?
“And I remember James telling me that Mantis was kind of like the glue that kept the Guardians together in some ways. I think it's beautiful and I think the world lacks a lot of empathy, too.”
Lastly, Iwuji weighed in on his villainous character.
He said: “The first thing that's written when you meet him is him listening to space opera. So, immediately I knew classical music was gonna be a big part of this character.
“Because I didn't know where I was gonna go with him. I thought I would just listen to a lot of my favourite arias and classical, and send them to, and actually, one or two of them made it on to the film.
“So, a lot of finding this guy, for me, was saying, there's something. If he's listening to opera and he's in space opera and he's this mad scientist sort of person, I just thought of someone that doesn't sleep.
“He needs the music as he wanders through his castle at night. It wasn't really about, how do I play the character written. It's like, how do I bring this guy into the room?”
Whether you are a fan or not, the action, comedy and characters will provide an escapism that will be appreciated.
∎ “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is streaming on Disney+.