Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters on August 1st, 2014, and we'll continue reporting everything that comes our way. But until then, we figured that now is a good time to put everything we know about one of Marvel's riskier films in one place for your reading convenience.
The cast of Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty impressive for a movie based on a relatively unknown Marvel comic book. Since the Guardians' roster has changed considerably (and constantly) since their introduction in 1969, this particular selection of members, while familiar to readers of recent Marvel Comics, may reveal a bit more about the film's plot and the future of the Marvel Universe than you might expect.
We've seen Chris Pratt make a dramatic physical change in order to play the leader of the Guardians, Star-Lord. Michael Rooker is Yondu, one of the few Guardians characters that has been around since the concept was first introduced. As of now, the voices of Groot and Rocket Raccoon haven't been cast, but since these are CGI characters, there's still plenty of time to get the right people (or trees...or, erm...raccoons) for the roles.
The casting of John C. Reilly as Rhomann Dey (a heroic Nova Corps leader) and Glenn Close as Nova Prime increases both the scope of the film and the reach of the Marvel movie universe. The question is whether or not the Nova Corps still exists, or if they've been wiped out and John C. Reilly is playing a survivor of a bygone era. Still, San Diego Comic-Con attendees did at least get to see the Nova Corps uniforms up close, and nobody (and I mean NOBODY) ever thought that would happen. Just as Marvel has been positioning the Guardians of the Galaxy comic for big things over the last six months, they've been doing the same with Nova. Don't be surprised if Novais one of those mystery Marvel Phase Three projects released between 2016-2017.
The presence of Zoe Saldana as Gamora, a green-skinned beauty known in the comics as "the most dangerous woman in the galaxy," hints at another potential plot point. You see, Gamora is the adopted daughter of Thanos, the cosmic madman who was famously teased at the end of The Avengers. It is still somewhat vague how large a role Thanos' role in Guardians of the Galaxy will be, other than as a mastermind, but it's likely that his presence will be heavily felt, especially when you consider that Drax the Destroyer (played by former WWE Superstar, Dave Bautista) has an origin which, at least in the comics, relies fairly heavily on his involvement.
As far as baddies go, Lee Pace is playing Ronan the Accuser and Djimon Hounsou is Korath the Pursuer, both of whom are members of the alien Kree (a race who have played quite heavily into the mythology of the Avengerscomics). Neither are really the kind of villain you hang your entire production on. A more likely source of villainy for the film comes in the form of Karen Gillan as Nebula. Who is Nebula, you ask? She's a ruthless space-pirate. Not high-stakes enough for you? She's also the granddaughter of Thanos.
In theory, Benicio del Toro as The Collector is the big baddie of Guardians of the Galaxy. But here's the thing about the Collector: even though he's one of the "elders of the universe" this isn't necessarily a villain you hang a new franchise on. Especially not a risky one. Among the Collector's abilities is that of prophesy, and he's the guy who foresaw the coming of, you guessed it, Thanos. Yes...him again.
Does anybody else see a pattern here? It seems likely that there's still another major casting announcement to be made, or that's being kept quiet. And there's still that question of what Vin Diesel has been doing hanging around with the folks at Marvel. If nothing else, Guardians of the Galaxy is going to make tremendous strides towards establishing Thanos as THE cosmic threat in the cinematic Marvel Universe.
Guardians of the Galaxy is directed by James Gunn (Slither, Super), and written by Gunn and the relatively unknown (although not for much longer!) Nicole Perlman. Marvel Studios' President, Kevin Feige is (unsurprisingly) producing, while Louis D’Esposito (you may know him from the recent Agent Carter short film), Victoria Alonso, Jeremy Latcham, Alan Fine, and Stan Lee all claim Executive Producer credit, with Nik Korda as co-producer. It's currently shooting in the UK at Shepperton Studios, but will also lens around London, including at Longcross Studios.
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Thanos was confirmed as being in the movie about 2 weeks ago...I don't know why you're saying he's not in it...
Thanks for catching that! Feige did confirm it at Comic-Con, the omnibus of comic book movie news. We'll avoid that in the future.