Guardians Of The Galaxy Adds Chris Pratt As Star-Lord

Zachary Levi. Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Jim Sturgess. Michael Rosenbaum. Joel Edgerton. Jack Huston. Lee Pace. Eddie Redmayne. Garrett Hedlund. Over the last few weeks all of those actors have gone over to Marvel Studios to test for the role of Star-Lord, the lead character in James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. But none of them got the gig. Instead the part will be going to the tall goofy dude from Parks and Recreations.

Deadline is reporting that Chris Pratt, who film fans may also know as one of the members of SEAL Team Six in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty and as Scott Hatteberg in Bennett Miller's Moneyball, has signed a deal with Marvel Studios to play the lead role in their upcoming sci-fi adventure. Star-Lord - real name Peter Quill - is a half-human/half-alien who flies into space to take on the role of an interplanetary policeman with the Guardians of the Galaxy. He is joined in the group by characters like Rocket Raccoon, Drax The Destroyer, Groot and Gamora, none of whom have been cast yet. The studio is still working on finding actors for the other roles in the movie. They have already set to movie to be released on August 1, 2014, meaning that production is scheduled to start soon.

As a loyal viewer of Parks and Rec and a big fan of Pratt I couldn't be more excited by this news and I am utterly fascinated to see what they end up doing with the character and the rest of the team. But how do you feel about the casting? Do you think he's a proper choice? Who do you want to see play the rest of the lineup? So many questions!

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.