James Gunn: Loneliness is the centre of Guardians of the Galaxy

In 2012, at the height of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s popularity, Kevin Feige took the stage at the San Diego Comic-Con and announced that they would next be making a film about a talking raccoon and a sentient tree. Of course, there were some understandable concerns that it would spell the beginning of the end for the franchise. 11 years after first meeting this ragtag group of space mercenaries, director James Gunn is back with the third instalment of the much-loved franchise. While it has been confirmed that the upcoming film will end the story for this group of Guardians, Gunn reveals that the trilogy has always been about Rocket Racoon. “Having Rocket at the heart of this story was always my intention,” he says, before elaborating, “This is a little animal who was taken and turned into something he shouldn’t be and felt completely ostracised and alienated from every other life form in the galaxy and was angry because of that, and he is angry because he’s really scared. That loneliness is the centre of Guardians of the Galaxy.”

However, loneliness isn’t necessarily always about being alone. Sometimes, overcoming depressing feelings of loneliness could just be about learning to be by yourself in peace. Gunn is tackling that facet of loneliness as well, as evinced by Chris Pratt’s answer to what Star-Lord aka Peter Quill goes through in Volume 3. “In the first movie, he was a young man learning to care about something other than himself. And then the second film was about Quill wanting to learn more about himself. I think the arc of the third movie is Quill learning to be okay on his own and learning.”

Gunn reiterates that point succinctly by saying, “The first film is the story of the mother, the second film is the story of the father, and this film is the story of the self.” A major part of Chris Pratt’s character was tied to his relationship with Gamora, played by Zoe Saldana in the film. After her character was killed by Thanos in Avengers: Endgame and a version of Gamora from the past was brought to the present, fans were left wondering how the character, who now has no memory of her love for Peter Quill, was going to be handled in the third film. However, Pratt manages to assuage fears regarding Gamora’s treatment in the film. “Gamora is one of the best-written characters I’ve ever seen, and I love the arc that she goes through in this third instalment. It will really flip people on their heads and defy their expectations as to how you should end a trilogy with two people who have been in love before.”

According to the director, GOTG Vol.3 will be more emotional than the previous films, and while endings are always emotional in a story, the heaviness of its closure has affected the cast as well. Chris Pratt says, “The fact that I get to be part of something that’s just so universally loved and will be living on screens long after I’m no longer living on this planet, is remarkable.”  While the rest of the cast has echoed Pratt’s feelings numerous times, GOTG Vol.3 might be a tad bit more personal to one man, more than the others, and that is its writer-director James Gunn. One wouldn’t have expected a film about a wholesome group of bounty hunters in space to be semi-autobiographical for its creator but that seems to be the case for Gunn. He reveals rather poignantly that a story about a talking raccoon with a tortured part is at its heart, about him. He says, “It’s really been rewarding for me to make this movie, which is such a personal statement because Rocket is me and this is about me.”