Marvel Studios
Captain America has come and gone. Now, it’s time for the great hordes of Marvel fans to shift their attention to the next film in Marvel’s two decades of future comic book films: Guardians of the Galaxy.
It’s a film we really don’t know that much about. Sure, we have a trailer, but it’s a single trailer from a month and a half ago, and since then we’ve gotten so precious little. Just a “new clip,” if two seconds of new footage sewn onto half a stale trailer counts as a clip these days. And Nathan Fillion, hinting that he might have a line or two. “Check the credits,” he says, coyly. I’d check the credits if I could, Mr. Fillion. But I can’t, so instead I will languish away into a husk of my former self.
But Entertainment Weekly has a big expose on Guardians of the Galaxy, and like any big print media story, it’s been savaged by digital media and stripped of all the juicy parts, long before it ever hits newsstands. So without further ado, thanks to MTV News, here’s every juicy part (suck it, print media):
First, Thanos will be in the movie, and his performance will be entirely motion-capture. Not the newest of news – the character was already confirmed to play a part by James Gunn (“Thanos is a character in our movie” is a phrase that’s not up for debate). And he was motion-capture in The Avengers. Joss Whedon slapped a couple motion capture dots on actor Damion Poitier, who turned and smiled, and several thousand people set about writing articles just like this one. Now we at least know it’s the same general formula.
Or more, as Gunn also describes Thanos as “the head of the snake.” That makes it sound very much like the villain will be doling out orders and scheming schemes and speaking actual dialogue, which might mean a real, live actor has been hired to play him. “Head of the snake” also sounds very much like something a crazy conspiracy theorist would say about secret Hasidic Jews controlling the White House, but given that all of Marvel’s film plans are mapped all over an office wall and stretch out two decades into the future, that particular phrasing is extremely appropriate.
Next is more straight talk from Gunn: “We’re definitely connected to Avengers 3.” A handful of words that say so much. Given that Thanos is the resident Big Bad of Guardians, and Avengers 3 currently has no villain, let the Thanos-is-the-Avengers-3-villain speculation run rampant. Also, bask in the now-confirmed glory that is Robert Downey Jr. trading barbs with Chris Pratt. And Captain America shaking hands with a talking raccoon. And all the Earth-bound heroes just sort of staring at Groot.
Guardians fansite GuardtheGalaxy.com also managed to pilfer a few images from the Entertainment Weekly story (like vultures, they are), so click those blue letters and check ’em out. One is a fairly tame shot of Pratt and Zoe Saldana sharing the film’s spherical MacGuffin, but the other is much more attention-getting. The Guardians, decked out in chic orange prison jumpsuits (except Groot, who has no genitals and thus no need to cover them) and making varying degrees of “tough face” at the camera. Really solidifies this group as a bunch of scuzzy space criminals, and not the mostly-wholesome team that is The Avengers.
Four months to go and these scraps are the newsiest Guardians news we can get. Is this what we should expect as we head into August? A lot of hush-hush hypebuilding, where the movie’s secrets are kept safely locked away until we actually sit our butts into the theater seats? Marvel’s got more riding on this one than any other film in its upcoming slate, so hopefully this slow-burn marketing works to their advantage.
Related Topics: Joss Whedon
