Star-Lord, the character set to be played by Chris Pratt in Marvel Studios' upcoming Guardians of The Galaxy, is a half human/half alien who finds his calling in outer space as an intergalactic police officer part if the titular group of crimefighters. Because of half his species, it shouldn't come as a surprise that at least some of the film will be grounded on Earth. But unlike, for example, 2011's Green Lantern, it seems that once the movie departs our planet it's not coming back.
SFX Magazine recently had a chance to sit down with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, and in posting a snippet of the interview on their website they reveal that most of the James Gunn will be set in outer space. Asked if the Phase Two movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be more "cosmic" than its predecessor, Feige was at first hesitant, saying, "I wouldn’t say that in a broad sense," but then singled out two very big films that will be part of Phase Two set beyond Earth.
"The Thor film and the Guardians Of The Galaxy film certainly are cosmic. Guardians and Thor will take the brunt of the cosmic side of the universe, particularly Guardians, which is 95% in space."
There will be the other side of the coin as well, however, namely in Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Describing the two films, commenting how they center on character, Feige also added that they will allow the studio to experiment in other broader contexts than being simple action movies.
"What’s exciting to me about Cap – sort of about Iron Man 3 too if you look at it – is it’s tonally almost like a different genre. Shane Black’s described Iron Man 3 as a Tom Clancy sort of political thriller, which I like a lot. We hired our directors on Cap because they loved our explanation that we really want to make a ’70s political thriller masquerading as a big superhero movie. Just like with the first film – we got Joe Johnston because we said, ‘We want to do a ’40s World War Two movie masquerading as a big superhero movie.’ I love that we’re doing a sequel to a film that’s a completely different genre than the first film. I think that’s fun. And the comics do it all the time.”
There is also the looming question about how the new characters of Phase Two will be integrated into The Avengers 2, the most notable heroes being the Guardians. But surprisingly Feige says that Gunn's film is more of its own thing. Responding to the question, "Will Guardians Of The Galaxy prove as integral to Avengers 2 as each Avenger’s solo film?“ the Marvel President said,
"I would say that it does not. It’s much more of a standalone film. It takes place in the same universe. And when we’ve been on the other side of that universe in other movies, you might see those characteristics in Guardians, but the Avengers are not involved with what’s happening out there at this time.”
With both Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World coming later this year and both the Captain America sequel and Guardians of the Galaxy going into production soon, the mysteries of the Marvel Universe will start to unfold soon.
