Star-Lord, Groot, Rocket Raccoon, and the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy have come a long way in the last year or so, with the rag-tag group of formerly lesser-known characters now achieving mainstream status in the pantheon of Marvel superheroes. With a sequel now in the works, Guardians of the Galaxy director and co-writer James Gunn seems well-aware that the follow-up to last year’s biggest superhero movie needs to answer some of the questions raised by its predecessor — particularly, the identity of Peter Quill’s father.
During an interview on the Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend podcast, Gunn offered some hints about where he’s getting inspiration for the 2017 sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy and revealed what isn‘t factoring into the mystery surrounding Peter Quill’s father.
“It’s different than what’s in the comic books,” said Gunn of the identity of the man (or alien, in this case) who fathered the galactic adventurer known as Star-Lord (as played by Chris Pratt). “Peter Quill’s father is somebody different in the comics. So then when the movie came out, we got green-lit on the sequel right away. I went in and I sat down with those guys and I’m like, ‘Okay, here’s what I think the sequel should be.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, whoa. That’s risky, but okay.’ Now I’m going to turn over the story in a few short weeks and we’ll find out how well it works.”
As for the sequel’s source material, fans shouldn’t expect to see anything lifted from the team’s comic-book adventures — not directly, at least. After insisting that the plot for the sequel is “not really based on anything,” Gunn offered some broad-stroke themes that it will likely address.
“The story for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is an original story that I came up with that I started working on actually while I was shooting Guardians of the Galaxy, and it’ll answer some of the questions that were put forth in the first movie about Peter Quill’s father and who he is and what’s going on with that,” he explained. “We’ll get to know some of the characters a little bit more and then we’re going to meet a couple of new characters who will be very important to Guardians movies and probably important to the Marvel Universe as a whole.”
Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will bring back Pratt along with co-stars Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper, with Gunn once again co-writing and directing the film. The film is currently scheduled to hit theaters May 5, 2017.
