Writer and director James Gunn is such a tease on social media and this is exactly how Marvel Studios likes it. Previously, he has teased that there could be not one but two new additions to GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 but since he's finished the first draft of his script for the sequel, things have changed.
While answering fan questions on the new social media platform Periscope, Gunn confirmed GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 was initially set to introduce two new characters but one had to be cut out due to too much going on in its story.
"I did not get any help with the first draft of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 other than I wrote a scriptment which I’ve been working on for nine months, and I wrote that very, very in-depth scriptment which is a 70-page combination of a script and a treatment and it goes through every beat of the movie, everything, and I’ve been going through that and showing that to [Marvel Studios Boss] Kevin [Feige] and getting feedback and seeing what worked and what didn’t, what characters work, what didn’t. I mean, people will be disappointed – at some point I’ll release – but I had another big character in my original draft and it was just getting too busy. I took that character out. And it’s a character I like a lot and hope to work with in the future but I just didn’t have room for that person, that character.” [Transcribed by ScreenRant.]
So who will be the new characters? You can comment on this below but Gunn has gone on record saying he loves characters like Beta Ray Bill and Starhawk and he included 8-bit versions of both in a special feature on the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY home release, too.
Gunn then confirmed GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 will have less characters than many would expect in a Marvel sequel. This is so he can further develop characters already introduced and so the sequel wouldn't feel cluttered with too many characters.
“People ask for so many characters to be in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and they ask for so many actors who they want to be in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 but we actually have less characters in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 than we have in Guardians of the Galaxy 1 because everything is just getting too sprawling and too crazy for me in these superhero comic book movies. And also in superhero comics in general. There’s just too many characters so you can’t concentrate on one and really get to know that character, and I really want to get to know the characters that we know better, and yeah, we will be introducing a new character…”
It's refreshing to hear that Gunn is focused on a 'less is more' approach for the sequel because the current trend of Marvel Studios' sequels is to have more and more characters added in compared to the last one.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 releases on May 5, 2017.
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To read more about Guardians of the Galaxy, click here.