Guardians of the Galaxy director hints at identity of Star-Lord’s dad

By Rick Marshall August 13, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Like many of the Marvel movies before it, Guardians of the Galaxy offered all sorts of nods to the future of the studio’s cinematic universe, not the least of which are the notions that the father of Peter “Star-Lord” Quill (Chris Pratt) may have some cosmic plans for his son, and that the “Mad Titan” Thanos isn’t going away anytime soon. It probably goes without mentioning, but consider this a SPOILER WARNING for anyone who hasn’t seen the film yet.

In an interview with Empire, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn hinted that Star-Lord’s dad won’t be the same character he is in Marvel Comics canon. In comics continuity, Star-Lord’s father is J’son of Spartax, the heir to the throne of an alien empire who crash-landed on Earth during his travels and fell in love with a human woman.

“It’s definitely not the character who it is in the comics, I’ll say that much,” said Gunn.

Related: Marvel lets loose with an exciting space adventure in Guardians of the Galaxy (review)

While he wouldn’t reveal any additional details about the identity of Star-Lord’s father, the filmmaker did say that Star-Lord’s history — and his history with Ravagers leader Yondu, who reveals in the film that he abducted a young Peter Quill from Earth on the orders of his father — were mapped out well before the cameras began rolling.

“There have been a lot of documents passed around about who Peter Quill’s father is between a select two or three of us,” he continued. “That’s been part of the plan since the beginning, that’s something I had to work out before we shot the screenplay. We wanted to make sure Yondu’s place in everything made sense and it does, so it’s all very specific stuff.”

As for Thanos, Gunn indicated that Thanos’ presence in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel isn’t certain at this point, and he’ll likely play a background role in much the same way he did in the first film. Thanos’ children, on the other hand, might not remain in the background.

“He’s got some other kids out there,” said Gunn. “He’s got to look after them. Nebula’s probably the sweetest of them, which tells you what his kids are like…”

Guardians Of The Galaxy is in theaters now. The sequel to Guardians Of The Galaxy is scheduled to hit theaters July 28, 2016.

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