James Gunn Reveals He Had Entirely Different Cast In His Mind For ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ But His Wishlist Was Turned Down By Marvel & Only Approved Zoe Saldana’s Name

James Gunn might not be a part of the MCU anymore, but he has left behind a great legacy with his Guardians of the Galaxy franchise starring Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana in the leads. Gunn is currently the co-head of the rival studio of the DC Universe, has opened up and revealed having a book of names he wished to work with while doing the Marvel film, and among them, only Zoe Saldana was the one who got a role in the franchise. He also shared how much he was fond of the Avatar star.

The first GOTG film came out in 2014, and besides Pratt and Saldana, it got some of the amazing Hollywood stars in it, including Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan and others. Sylvester Stallone, too, made brief appearances in the franchise. The director was, however, ousted from Marvel after his controversial tweets resurfaced after the second instalment of the film came out. Still, the entire cast stood by him and wrote a petition to bring him, and they succeeded at that.

James Gunn opened up about the first time he went to Marvel and spoke of his idea, and while doing so, he revealed that he only got Zoe Saldana for the film among all the other actors he had in mind and his small book when he went there. Gunn said, “When I first went to Marvel and I pitched ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ I brought a little book. I had worked very hard trying to put this little book together with all the little pictures and photo references and all that stuff. And in that book, there were all the characters listed and who I thought should play those characters.”