Kevin Feige Had to Save James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy – Marvel Wanted it to Fail
James Gunn received immense appraisal after crafting Guardians of the Galaxy with his exceptionally unique vision. However, this wouldn’t have been possible if Kevin Feige had not helped the director.
Marvel Studios during its initial years had significant challenges and struggles which the co-authors Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards have mentioned in their book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios. When James Gunn proposed the idea of his first Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel gave numerous suggestions for the script that could have ruined Gunn’s vision. But thanks to Kevin Feige who disagreed and saved the film.
Kevin Feige Saved James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy crafted by James Gunn, undeniably came out to be a different project compared with other Marvel superhero movies. However, Gunn’s vision could have ended forever even before it was filmed as Marvel gave notable suggestions or notes for the script when Guardians of the Galaxy was in the works.
The creative committee barely focused on Gunn’s idea as they believed it would suffer a huge loss. Kevin Feige and Gunn focused on Guardians of the Galaxy and Feige helped the director incorporate his vision unlike executing what Marvel suggested. According to the book, James Gunn said:
“Every problem I had on the first movie was because of this weird entity that would stop the conversation between director and producer, I’m really grateful to have Kevin be the guy. At the heart of it,
Kevin loves movies. And that’s all we’re trying to do: make great pop cinema.”
Kevin Feige and Louis D’Esposito disagreed with the notes of the creative committee who almost ignored Guardians of the Galaxy. Gunn added:
“They were a group of comic-book writers and toy people. Kevin and I were brain surgeons performing surgery, and we were surrounded by a group of podiatrists.”
The book highlights the struggles that the makers face while being pressured by the creative committee which majorly aims to make a lot of money through superhero films. This became a significant issue after the success of James Gunn’s movie as Marvel wanted the next Avenger film to become a massive hit.
James Gunn Was Shocked to Witness Marvel Studios For the First Time
MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios is a book that offers us behind-the-scenes goodies, incidents, and memorable moments during the initial years of Marvel Studios. This is when James Gunn visited the office for the first time to discuss his weird and exciting vision. The director was left stunned after witnessing the extreme frugality in Marvel’s culture. He said: “I was sitting in an office that seemed to be constructed of cardboard and scotch tape.”
The Dawn of the Dead director experienced a decent and lackluster Marvel studio that no one would expect from studios that are behind billion-dollar films. The cost-saving measures adopted by Marvel led to many humorous incidents within the office including a chair tumbling over a distributor who came to visit the office and employees were restricted to only using their lunchbox napkins to blow their noses. These were indeed humorous but affected the working culture quite a lot in the early phase.
Watch Guardians of the Galaxy on Disney+
