Guardians Of The Galaxy's Original Writer Had To Fight Tooth And Nail For Credit On The Film
The screenplay to the 2014 mega-hit "Guardians of the Galaxy," the 10th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was credited to director James Gunn and longtime Hollywood screenwriter Nicole Perlman. Perlman also has story credits on the films "Captain Marvel" and "Pokémon Detective Pikachu," and has previously been attached to a sequel to the 1986 Jim Henson film "Labyrinth," as well as film adaptations of the 1980s toy properties "Visionaries" and "M.A.S.K."
Perlman, according to an old article on the Marvel website, was recruited into the Marvel writing room way back in 2009 and was offered the opportunity to write a spec script for a "lesser" Marvel property as a test of her style and working capabilities. She selected "Guardians of the Galaxy," a Marvel title that had been rebooted by authors Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning the year before. Perlman said to her interviewer that this was a common way for Marvel to test screenwriters in the early days and that several others had undergone the same process. Because she liked sci-fi, Perlman was equal to the task, and she spent two years in the Marvel "boot camp" working on "Guardians."
Eventually, Gunn came aboard and rewrote the script that Perlman had put together. This meant that Perlman faced the possibility of having her name removed from the project. No matter how much was altered, it only seemed right that Perlman should at least be credited for her contributions (and for bringing "Guardians" to the MCU's attention in the first place).
In the book "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios," by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards, the people around Perlman revealed the struggle she went through to get credited for conceiving the "Guardians" screenplay and the help she got in that task.
The F*** James Gunn party
Gunn was also quoted in "MCU" and claimed that Perlman's screenplay was totally different from the one he wrote to replace it. He also seemed miffed that the WGA wanted to give her a co-screenwriter credit. "In Nicole's script everything is pretty different," Gunn said. "The story is different, the character arcs are different. It's not about the same stuff. But that's how the WGA works. They like the first writers an awful lot."
Perlman was seemingly okay with stepping aside and letting Gunn take credit for "Guardians," and, in public, said that everyone who worked on the film should be recognized for their mutual contribution. However, "Thor" co-writer Zack Stentz revealed that things weren't so rosy in private. Stentz objected to the initial move to remove Perlman's name from the project. The screenplay ended up going into arbitration at the WGA. Stentz recalled the bitterness involved, noting:
"Nicole had to knife-fight for her credit on 'Guardians of the Galaxy.' But she is probably the preeminent female action tentpole writer now because she was the first woman to have her name on not just a Marvel movie, but on a Marvel movie that people really love. She threw a party when the movie came out literally called the 'F*** James Gunn' party because she had won that very bruising credit arbitration."
Indeed, Stentz recalled that Gunn played a little dirty during the arbitration process, seemingly interacting with friends and fans to downplay Perlman's contributions. Whether or not Gunn was doing this to intentionally muddy the litigious waters, or if he was merely excitedly interacting with the fan community, is a matter of mere speculation.
Undermining Perlman
Stentz felt that Gunn was making mercenary moves and trying to get the fans on his side. Stentz explained:
"The thing that I'm still angry about — and I say this as a fan of James Gunn as a director — was that he very clearly was selectively leaking stuff to his friends and the fanboy media circles to undermine her credit. When Matthew Vaughn decided to have a temper tantrum over the fact that we got screen credit, at least he did it under his name."
Stentz is referring to Vaughn's 2011 film "X-Men: First Class," which he wrote a draft of.
Perlman's script might have been different in terms of story and character arc (as Gunn claimed), but reports about her drafts reveal that Perlman's was crucial in certain script elements. For instance, Rocket Raccoon (the character voiced by Bradley Cooper) was going to be removed by executives for being too silly. Perlman was the one who insisted he remain. She also included Thanos as a villain and was the one who initially affected the screenplay's whimsical, flippant tone. According to Total Film, it was "Avengers" director Joss Whedon who conferred with Gunn about how to revise Perlman's script to make it "weirder."
Inverse once tried to bring attention to Perlman, publishing an interview in 2023 talking about her contributions. In talking to the outlet, Perlman revealed that she wrote 10 drafts of "Guardians" from 2009 to 2011 and that she tried various Marvel characters on the team before settling on the lineup seen in Gunn's film. She also recalled writing the opening heist sequence and revealed it came from a childhood memory of visiting Disneyland and seeing the park's famed submarine ride drained of water.
The Walkman debate
According to "MCU," the depiction of Star-Lord as a wisecracking Han Solo type was Perlman's idea. Additionally, "MCU" noted that the centralization of Star-Lord's Walkman, and the film's inclusion of vintage pop hits, was also Perlman's idea. In Perlman's vision, however, it was hits from the '80s and '90s. "I had a Walkman growing up," she said to Inverse, "and the music I had in my draft was Michael Jackson, Guns N' Roses, and stuff."
Gunn, however, contradicted that in a 2014 interview with Film Divider, where he said plainly that Perlman's draft had no Walkman in it. It was Gunn who turned the Walkman into a totem for Star-Lord, explaining that the cassette inside was a gift from his dying mother. The playlist heard in "Guardians" was Gunn's doing. Although Gunn and Perlman never directly collaborated on a draft, one can see that the final film is a blend of two strong, creative minds. Perlman came up with the ideas, and Gunn reworked them to be his own. "Guardians of the Galaxy" might have been brought over the finish line by Gunn, but Perlman was right to fight for credit, as the film seems to be mostly made of her DNA.
On a personal (and self-indulgent note), the author of this article once — just as an idle creative exercise — wrote a screenplay treatment for the ultra-obscure MarvelUK character Motormouth (this was around 2012) and actually mailed the treatment to the Marvel writers' room. In his treatment, Motormouth, a sassy 17-year-old British punker, was never without her Walkman and constantly put on punk hits to accentuate her everyday life.
But I'm not making claims about anything, of course.