It was recently revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy could have had four short prequel films. James Gunn even shot some scenes to show the Rocket & Groot story.

Every filmmaker has projects that go from development to the trash can without seeing the light of day, and James Gunn has confirmed that stories about one such project involving The Guardians of the Galaxy are not only accurate, but instead of cancelling it, they have started to add to the material. In a new book, The History of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige talks about how Guardians of the Galaxy almost got some short prequels that would have introduced several characters and their backstories before the first film’s 2014 release.

In the book, Feige says: “We toyed with the idea of making short films about Drax, Rocket and Groot, and Gamora, leading up to Guardians. This one-shot series would have led to the actual Guardians movie — which would have been immediately preceded by a fourth standalone short about a mysterious kid who likes fantasy stuff. And then Guardians would have started. And halfway through, it would be revealed that the big space hero is the kid from the short film. We thought that would be clever, but it was too much”.

On his Twitter account, responding to Screen Rant‘s article, James Gunn acknowledged the lost premise and revealed that he even shot part of the Rocket and Groot story before the idea was scrapped.

I forgot about this, but this is true. Not only did we plan it, we shot footage for one of the scripts (Rocket & Groot) – part of which was the first shot of Rocket shooting a machine gun on Groot’s back that we showed at San Diego Comic Con. https://t.co/fxlD85f5YB

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) October 25, 2021

“I forgot about that, but it’s true. Not only did we plan it, but we also shot footage for one of the scripts (Rocket & Groot) – part of it was the first shot of Rocket shooting a machine gun at Groot’s back, which we showed at San Diego Comic-Con“.

Gunn continued, “There were 4 [spinoffs] – Rocket & Groot, Gamora, Drax and Star-Lord. Only the script for Rocket & Groot was completely finished, and the storyboard was completely finished. It was the story of how they met, and I still think that’s true to that canon in my head. I also wrote a part for Alan Tudykin!”

“In the end, we didn’t do it because I realised it would be ridiculous for me to write and direct four short films at the same time as I was preparing a huge world-building film,” Gunn continued. “The three shorts would have played before the three films that came out before Guardians – which seemed like a good idea to get people familiar with them since everyone was saying these unknown characters were going to be the ‘Marvel first bomb’.”

Finally, he continued, “The 4th short was going to be Quill’s backstory, which is really what’s happening now at the beginning of the Guardians. It was very hard to admit that it was too much for me, and I was sad, but I decided I couldn’t do them (especially Rocket & Groot). But you know, maybe one day!”

Given that James Gunn is continuing the Guardians legacy with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it certainly doesn’t sound like he’s entirely convinced of that, and if I asked him back to tell me some short, individual stories about the crew, he’d definitely be on board. Having given the ragtag band of heroes almost a decade before the final film’s release in the trilogy, who could blame him for finding it hard to leave them behind for good. With Disney+ now hosting several short films, this would surely be the perfect way to return to the franchise without the pressure of coming up with a whole new movie plot.

That said, filming is already underway for the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and it’s straight out of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which will premiere on Disney+ in December 2022 and in theatres on May 5, 2023.

Source: Twitter