It may still be almost two years off, but with deep space spectacles of this ilk, the wheels are certainly already turning on Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (maybe called Guardians 3000?). Marvel is big on expanding their franchises as they go proceed, bringing in fresh characters, and director James Gunn recently said that he’s already been talking to someone about playing an important new addition.
Gunn was all over social media throughout the Guardians of the Galaxy production process, and still is. Over the weekend he held yet another Q&A session on the live streaming app Periscope (via Screen Rant), where he talked at length about the follow up to the space adventure at length. He revealed that the process of casting newcomers is already underway, kind of. He has a character in mind, a "new Guardian," as he calls it, and has even been talking to someone, informally at this stage, about playing the part.
Yeah, that’s very, very vague, but it is also information that presents a number of intriguing possibilities to the more speculation-inclined fans out there. Gunn has never been shy about talking about his Guardians films, and while he hasn’t shared too many specific, concrete details, we have a hazy conception of what to expect from this character.
In his talk, Gunn did say that this new addition will join the core team of space miscreants. In earlier statements he has said that in Guardians 2 he wants there to be at least two female members of the team time around. Combining these two bits of information it’s an easy hop skip and a jump to assume that the new face will likely be a female character.
That is, admittedly, not very much to go on at all, and if the new character is actually a woman, that doesn’t narrow the possibilities down all that much. There are numerous potential female characters that could come in, and Gunn is not above going obscure. But that is one thing the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been criticized for, it’s lack of prominent female characters, and this would be a step towards addressing those complaints.
A while back, Gunn turned in a 70-page treatment to the Marvel brass, which they famously referred to as "risky," though they ultimately gave it their stamp of approval. He confirmed that a draft of the script is done and is taking a momentary pause before he dives back in. At this point, his aims is to have another round in the books before next month when he heads to South America for work on the horror thriller The Belco Experiment, which he wrote and is producing.
What Gunn has said about the Guardians 2 story is that it’s "about fathers," and it’s been hinted at that we’ll find out the true identity of Star-Lord’s dad, which is reportedly different than in the comics. We also know that Michael Rooker’s Yondu will be back, and considering he’s the closest thing to a father Peter Quill has ever really known, he’ll play a key part in the ensuing drama.
We’ll see how all of this, and likely much more, plays out when Guardians of the Galaxy 2 soars into theaters on May 5, 2017.
