MOVIE: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2′ Is Taking A ‘Risk’ By Not Following The Comics

Adapting a well known comic book property into a live-action
television series or film is a tricky prospect. On one hand you have the
original property and an expectation from fans who want to see a
faithful translation. And on the other, there’s the obvious desire or
need for creative freedom, an approach that may involve drawing
inspiration from the source material or handpicking specific elements
from said comic instead of strictly following it. Film is a very
different medium than monthly comics, after all.


Marvel Studios has done a fair job of balancing this line when it
comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From costumes and origin
stories, to supporting players and villains, much of what moviegoers
have seen in the movies released so far (categorized into Phase 1 and 2)
thus far is commendable and generally close to the books. When key
elements are different however, reactions tend to be mixed,

One example of this is how Iron Man 3 
handled the concept of
the title character’s arch nemesis from the comics known as the
Mandarin. Even though the film and Marvel One-Shot All Hail The King left the idea open that there’s still the “real” Mandarin somewhere out there in the MCU, the way the title was used and twisted in the story didn’t work for some Iron Man fans.


What many moviegoers may not realize is that one of Marvel’s most successful and well-received projects, Guardians of the Galaxy,
is actually the least faithful to the comics. The way the five main
characters led by Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord come together, their origins
(i.e. Drax no longer from Earth), who they battle against (the
villainous Ronan was drastically different than the books where he
eventually becomes a heroic figure) and and for (Nova Corps), are all
different than the comics. Visual cues, set pieces, most characters and
other iconic elements were intact, but for the most part this story was
born from the mind of writer and director James Gunn. With a sequel on
the way, Gunn’s making it clear that he’s going to be making even more
changes going forward, including of course, who Star-Lord’s father is – a mystery that will be answered in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 when it opens in theaters May 2017.

In speaking on the Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend
podcast this week, Gunn spoke about the sequel, confirming that it’s not
just little things that will change, but the entire story of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will be his and not based on specific story lines from the comics.


“It’s not really based on anything. The story for
Guardians 2 is an original story that I came up with that I started
working on actually while I was shooting Guardians 1, 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. 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.” […]


Consider that a tease of GOTG 2 introducing potential new team members (he previously told us there’d be at least two female members of the team this time around), new villains and supporting characters for future sequels, and other space-based characters who we expect could be involved with The Avengers: Infinity War, a two-part event movie coming out in 2018 and 2019.

“It’s different than what’s in the comic books. 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.”


Gunn nailed the important parts when bringing the other-worldly Guardians
to life on the big screen and took what many thought was too weird or
risky and made it one of the most memorable and entertaining superhero
movies to date. We won’t even go into how well that project has done on
the merchandising side.

With Guardians of the Galaxy 2 deviating further from the
comics however, and given Marvel’s “whoa” reaction, it could be even
riskier. By not following the books or changing characters and their
stories, Gunn is potentially creating missed opportunities in not being
able to adapt some of the absolute best spaced-based comics Marvel’s
ever made (looking at Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova comics from 2006-2010 and their corresponding crossover events).


An example of this is how Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) was turned into a relentless “psycho” villain in Guardians and seemingly killed off. Gunn already confirmed Ronan’s not coming back for the sequel (here’s a list of who is coming back) and if he never
returns, throwing out Ronan’s important role would also be tossing out
his involvement and relationships in many years of cosmic adventures
that are worthy of the big screen. We have a feeling he could return
down the road though…

It’s wonderful that Gunn can have creative freedom and that Marvel seemingly trusts him, but Marvel movie fans all know how that went for Edgar Wright in his unique take on Ant-Man. He was replaced and the script was made to better fit the bigger picture plans of the franchise.

Would you rather Gunn look to the best Guardians stories
from Marvel Comics or is the idea of something original and more to his
style more appealing? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Source: Uproxx

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