How 'Ferris Bueller' Changed The 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Ending

Ever since we ran my interview with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige a few weeks back, I've been holding back this bit. It's a really fun story Feige told me about the Guardians of the Galaxy ending. Not the ending of the plot, and not the end credits scene, just the way the film ends.

All of Marvel's movies end in the very James Bond way of declaring their characters will be back. But, usually, that happens at the end of the credits. In Guardians, though, the declaration comes immediately after the final shot of the movie. Why? And how did Ferris Bueller's Day Off play into it? Read Feige's story about the Guardians of the Galaxy ending below.

Here's an excerpt from our larger interview with the Marvel Studios President. Read the full thing here. Minor spoilers follow.

/Film: Right there at the end, this movie boldly declares "The Guardians will be back." Now obviously that makes sense but do you know when they're gonna come back and when do you think we'll know when they're gonna come back?[Note: This question was asked before Comic Con where Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was officially announced. So the actual answers are "Yes," and "Very Soon." But here's what Feige said two weeks ago.]Kevin Feige: I think I know and I think we'll share that at some point. I don't know when we're gonna reveal all those the titles to all those dates that we just put out. It's funny. This is boring, so I don't think you should put this in your story until a little later when the movie comes out.Okay..

'Cause this is sort of minutiae, behind the scenes minutiae that I don't think is interesting lead up to the movie. We put that [declaration] there, on all of our movies, James Bond style.

But it's at the very, very end of the credits.

It's at the very end 'cause I always think that's fun. I think that's cool. And I was always so excited. You know the first time I saw it was in Superman actually, not on James Bond. But there's something different in this movie, which was the Groot dancing thing. And James [Gunn] was very adamant, rightfully so, that he didn't want that to come at the end of the credits or in the middle of the credits 'cause he wanted to have as many people see that as possible. So he said, "Okay, let's just go right to it." And initially we had a thing where the Milano flew off, then it just cut right to that and credits started over that image. On the side. We sort of pushed everything over and did it on the side. And I was like "This isn't working." It feels like frigging Principal Rooney on the bus in Ferris Bueller. It's gotta be full frame just Drax and Groot.

But it felt weird going from the end of the movie, off into the sunset and then this. It didn't work. So there was the idea, I think, James and one of our editors had to put [the declaration in between the final shot and the dancing]. And I thought "Oh is that so presumptuous? Is that gonna jinx us that they'll never return because the movie doesn't do well?" But it felt pretty cool and then I had said, "Wait, have the title come up first," which would hopefully be a cheer moment if people like the movie. Have the big title at the beginning of the movie and then you have it again. And then bring up "Will return" a beat later, so it can get a second bite at the applause apple if people like the movie. And it felt right. But I did think is this gonna be like Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins?

Yeah, right. I don't think you have anything to worry about that.

All right, good.

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And he doesn't. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will open June 2017. Now, the question is, when you saw the movie, did the crowd cheer like Feige wanted?