James Gunn Didn't Want One Marvel Character In Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

The modern blockbuster landscape has been so cluttered with by-committee product for so long that it's sometimes hard to remember why we ever got excited about massive tentpole movies in the first place. That's why it's so exhilarating when we get something as incandescently original as Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17" or Ryan Coogler's "Sinners." These movies remind us what's possible when gifted filmmakers can use studio resources to take risks and dream big without having to engage in fan service or lay track for the next several installments in a franchise.

There was a time when the prospect of sequels didn't compromise creativity. Steven Spielberg knew he was launching a film series when he made "Jurassic Park," but he didn't feel duty-bound to litter his movie with Easter eggs and transparent setups for the next movies. Bryan Singer's "X-Men" and Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" were greenlit to generate bigger grosses down the line, but they hold together remarkably well as standalone entertainments.

Once Marvel Studios figured out the many-tentacled, franchise-spawning formula with its Phase One run of "Iron Man," "Thor," and "Captain America: The First Avenger," the degree of creativity filmmakers were allowed within the parameters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe shrank a bit. Though talented directors like Joss Whedon, Peyton Reed, and Scott Derrickson were still able to place their stylistic stamp on their films, the finished product was malleable by design. At the last second, a scene could be inserted or a post-credits sequence added to goose excitement for what was to come.

James Gunn knew he'd have to roll with the punches when he signed on to do a page-one rewrite of "Guardians of the Galaxy" over a decade ago, but his gag reflex got activated when he had to shoehorn in one character that didn't jibe with what he was trying to accomplish in his corner of the MCU. Now that Gunn is calling the shots on the DC Universe, he's determined not to force characters and story arcs on the filmmakers under his aegis.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gunn was asked if his forthcoming "Superman" will feature a post-credits sequence. It will. But the director is adamant that this scene won't paint the people he's hired into a corner. Because he wasn't thrilled when Marvel Studios forced a character on him. In the interview, Gunn recalled balking at the studio's insistence that he write Thor into "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" by having him turn up in the Milano at the end of "Avengers: Endgame." As he told EW:

"I said in the script notes: 'I'm not gonna put him in. I don't want to have Thor in the 'Guardians.' 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."

Gunn won that battle, but he had to bend the knee when it came to Adam Warlock, a comic book nerd favorite whose long-awaited appearance in the Guardians universe was teased at the end of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2." Gunn hadn't planned on introducing Warlock into his trilogy, but he went along with Marvel Studios wanted, and wound up bloating the runtime of a mostly moving finale.

Per Gunn:

"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.' 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 [Poulter], 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."

We'll have to wait a few weeks to see what Gunn gives us in the post-credits sequence of "Superman," but if you're hoping for an appearance from Batman, Swamp Thing, or Jonah Hex, you should temper your expectations. Personally, I hope Gunn does something silly à la the shawarma stinger from the end of "The Avengers." Keep it light. Lord knows comic book movies could use a little levity nowadays.