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James Gunn Almost Didn’t Sign On to Direct the Upcoming ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Film

FREEZE!  The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2! Continue reading ONLY if you have seen the film.

If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for?  Go see it, then come back and read on.  Go ahead.  We’ll wait…..

James Gunn Almost Didn't Sign On to Direct the Upcoming 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' Film

 

If you’ve made it to this point then, we can safely assume you’ve seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.  If you haven’t yet, this is your final warning.  The rest of the article will contain major spoilers from the film which James Gunn discussed with fans via a Facebook Live Q&A Session on Sunday afternoon.  Lucky for me, I had just gotten home from seeing the film and was able to catch the entire hour and fifteen minute chat!

During the Facebook Live Q&A, Gunn didn’t hold back when it came to answering questions thrown at him from the fans that were watching.   One question that came up was regarding Gunn’s choice to kill off one of the major characters of the film, Yondu.  Gunn revealed that this decision was one of the most difficult he’s ever had to make as a storyteller and, he wasn’t sure if he could do another Guardians film without Michael Rooker.  He revealed that this particular decision caused him to hesitate before committing to sign on as director for the Vol. 3 installment of the film franchise.

As Entertainment Weekly points out, Rooker has appeared in all of Gunn’s films starting right from his directorial debut in the 2006 horror film Slither.  Gunn confirms that, after the death of the character, we will not be seeing Yondu in future Guardian films unless it’s via a flashback or if it’s a separate prequel film (iiiiinteresting!  We’d LOVE to see a prequel Yondu film!!) and that, he feels Yondu’s decision to sacrifice himself at the end of the film in order to save his adopted son, was vital to the story he wanted to tell.

During the Q&A, Gunn had the following to say in response to a question about why the character had to die:

“Let me tell you, there was nothing harder for me than the choice to kill Yondu in this movie.  Michael Rooker, for all the crap I give him, is one of my closest friends in the world and the last thing I wanted to do was to make a movie without Michael Rooker in the future. I almost didn’t do Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 because there was no Michael Rooker in it and I couldn’t see making the movie without him. He means that much to me and I love him that much. And it was the hardest choice I’ve ever had to make from a storytelling perspective to choose to have Yondu die. I wrote a bunch of treatments where Yondu did not die. There were other endings — he was saved at the last minute after taking the sacrificial stance, and I wrote many drafts like that. And I realized I was being dishonest. That was not what this story was. For me, the most important thing in making a movie is to tell the truest and most honest story possible, and that’s whether you’re making a $500,000 indie film or a $200 million dollar spectacle film. And the truth of this story, this was about a father’s true and ultimate love for his son. This is a movie about, Who really are our fathers? Who really are our siblings? And the only way for it to be an honest story was for Yondu to die, and anything else would have been half measures, and would have been me backing out because I was afraid to tell the truth. And so that’s why Yondu dies.”

I get it an the importance that this particular scene had to telling the story but, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had tears in my eyes watching Yondu sacrifice himself for Peter Quill (Chris Pratt).  How did you feel about the ending of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2?  Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below and, you can watch the full Facebook Live Q&A session with James Gunn below.

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