It will prove to be the final comic book movie of summer 2014, but don’t think for a second that we’ve forgotten about James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The film ranks extremely high on our most anticipated list, and today we not only have a closer look at the sci-fi adventure itself, but also into its future. Marvel Studios has just unveiled two brand new stills from the August release, and Disney CEO Bob Iger has revealed that the studio is already thinking about a sequel.
To focus on the images first, which come to us via the Guardians of the Galaxy Facebook page, while Star-Lord – played by Chris Pratt - has certainly been a big part of the marketing for the film so far, what these new stills provide are some cool closer looks at the character’s costume. For example, his helmet:
Most of the trailers and marketing are going to feature Star-Lord without this piece of equipment, as folks at Marvel and Disney probably want to show off Pratt’s pretty face, but we should spend a moment talking about how awesome this design is. Unlike what the character wears in the comics, this is actually more of a mask, as the top of the hero’s head is actually almost completely exposed (avoiding hat hair perhaps?). Those glowing red eyes are also pretty damn cool, and look even better in the low light of the second new image:
As mentioned, the lighting is a bit dim in this photo, but it does provide us an opportunity to take a closer look at the twin hardware that Star-Lord wears on his hips:
While the comic book version of Star-Lord carries what is known as an Element Gun – a gun with the power to fire all five of the natural elements – I don’t believe that’s what we’re seeing here. These look more like standard blasters, but perhaps that’s just because the protagonist discovers the Element Gun at some point in the movie.
If you’re thinking at this point that Guardians of the Galaxy looks great and that you can’t wait to see more of it, then you are definitely not alone – as proven by comments from Disney CEO Bob Iger (via or sci-fi sister site Giant Freakin Robot). Speaking during a shareholders conference call – the same one that confirmed there are three Star Wars spin-offs in the works – the executive briefly spoke about the potential of Guardians of the Galaxy as a big franchise. Said Iger,
"This August 1st, we’re looking forward to introducing the world to more fantastic Marvel storytelling, with a great cast of new characters in Guardians of the Galaxy, which we screened last week and we believe it has strong franchise potential."
Could this suggest that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 could wind up being part of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Perhaps, but it is far too early to tell. For now we’ll just have to wait for the next trailer for the James Gunn movie, which I predict will be arriving in theaters along with X-Men: Days of Future Past later this month.
