Here’s what we learned from the Guardians of the Galaxy press conference
Here are the best quotes from the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 press conference featuring director James Gunn, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, , Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Kurt Russell, Sylvester Stallone and Marvel President Kevin Feige. Needless to say, there are mild spoilers for the film below.
Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel cinematic universe continues to expand.
Russell, who plays Ego the Living Planet, talked about checking out the script before signing on. He said, “When I read the script I wanted to make sure I was understanding it correctly. I hadn’t seen the first movie; I’m not much of a movie-goer. I knew that everybody loved it, though. When I saw the movie, I immediately started getting it, and I immediately wanted to do it. And that was immediately followed by, ‘everybody loves the first movie, what you don’t want to do is do something that’s going to make them not like the second one.’ So you do feel that pressure. I told James that, I said ‘I don’t want to mess this thing up, so I need your help.'”
Pratt talked about meeting Russell. He told us, “You promise yourself you’re not going to do this thing that happens every time you meet someone who’s an icon, someone that you’ve known way longer than they’ve ever known you. You’ve seen all their stuff, and you have this opportunity, from time to time, to work with someone like a Kurt Russell. And you promise yourself you’re not going to do the thing where you geek out, but it’s a little inauthentic if you don’t. If [I were to] just go in there like, ‘Oh? What is it, Kurt? Hey, nice to meet you, Chris,’ and I don’t acknowledge how much I love him and what a fan I am, if you don’t get that out of the way, then it feels a little inauthentic.So I think I did that immediately. It doesn’t really take that long to tell someone that you really love them and you really respect their work and for them to go, ‘Yeah? Thanks!’ And then that’s it. At that point, you move forward, and there’s this really cool thing, the one thing I never would have imagined, the greatest part of it, the biggest secret, is you become somebody’s friend and somebody’s peer, rather than a fan. And that’s really nice, and I think Kurt and I have become friends. We connected on a lot of things outside of just the movie.”
Gunn joked about the rules set by Feige. He said, “Kevin Feige has a rule, he gave me full creative freedom except the one thing [is that] there must be Chris Pratt shirtless.”
We got some info on the other Guardians you’ll see in the film in a back and forth between Gunn and Feige:
Feige: They’re definitely the original Guardians. That was the fun of it and when James had the idea to do more with the Yondu character — who is also an original Guardian — there was the notion that he had a team once like Peter does now. That’d be fun to see them. And [Ving Rhames] is definitely Charlie-27.
Gunn: With all the post-credits scenes on this movie, they’re all funny and fun, and most of them are things we hope to see continue on in the MCU. Whether that’s a supporting role in future movies or whatever, I think it would be great to see those things and those characters show up.
They were asked about the rest of the names. Gunn said, “Well, you can read the credits so. Right? I mean, yeah, Ving Rhames is Charlie-27. Michelle Yeoh who I’m an enormous fan of from — I’m a big fan of ’90s Hong Kong films. She’s a very wonderful person. She is Aleta Ogord, who is the other Starhawk, the female Starhawk.” He also said that a certain red alien is Kurgarr. We also recently learned that Miley Cyrus is the voice of Mainframe.
Gillian and Saldana talked about playing sisters Nebula and Gamora and doing action scenes together. Gillan said, “It’s the greatest. I loved working on all of that stuff with Zoe.” She continued, “You’re such a great fighter [to Saldana]. Zoe teaches me how to fight while we’re doing it. She’ll be like, we’re turning around like that, [do this] and you’re going to look cool.” Saldana talked about Gillan, saying that she’d turn on the Nebula voice as soon as Gunn said, “action.” “I tried to do that for Gamora,” she said, “and everyone was like, ‘don’t do that.'” She praised the changes that Gillan did as soon as she got into character. “She changes everything; the look, the walk.”
Stallone talked about choosing to join Guardians. He said, “Early on in my career, I became fascinated with mythology; Joseph Campbell, “The Hero With a Thousand Faces,” when I started doing ‘Rambo.’ There was an evolution. Each generation has to find themselves and find its own heroes and find its own mythology and this is this generation’s, and maybe the next generation’s mythology. And when Kevin invited me on board, I said, this is interesting because I haven’t gone here. I’m kind of Earth-bound. This is something that takes place in a whole other sphere where James and the Marvel people have created their own world and their own reality… it was great. And it got me out of the house with my three daughters. That’s why I gave him my salary back,” he laughed.
When asked about how many films his character would be in, he said, “I’ll believe it when I see it, Kevin.” He laughed, “This is Hollywood, you know what I mean?”
Saldana talked about coming back for a second time. “I think that what I loved the most was – and it may sound selfish, but definitely the relationship between Gamora and Nebula. I am one of three sisters. I have been itching and yearning to see more of a female presence in action films because I love action films… I love watching ‘The Equalizer’ and I’ll watch that fifty times… so to have a film with three female characters that are adding such unique qualities to the film – and they’re very relevant, and their relationships in the film [are explored] more deeply… I’m so excited, and in a way, anxious because I know Gamora is much more reserved character… I wanted to be crying with nose goo and everything,” she laughed. “And James was like, ‘You’re like the Clint Eastwood of the movie.’ And I was like, ‘What’s that?’ But anyway, that was my favorite.”
Are you guys excited for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2? Let us know in the comments or tweet us @ComingSoonnet.
Directed and written by James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is produced by Marvel Studios’ president, Kevin Feige, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Jonathan Schwartz, Nik Korda and Stan Lee serving as executive producers. Opening in theaters on May 5, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be followed by Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 7 and Thor: Ragnarok on November 3. Avengers: Infinity War is scheduled to open on May 4, 2018.
