The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy has featured no shortage of surprising and heartbreaking deaths, from the sacrifice of the original Groot in the first film to Yondu’s redemptive demise in the second. Plus, Marvel seems desperate to have us believe Rocket will die in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. However, writer/director James Gunn has now revealed the shocking truth that he initially planned another death that would’ve changed the course of the MCU in ways it’s hard to conceive of.
While speaking to Phase Zero, Gunn was asked how much of a challenge it was incorporating Gamora’s demise in Avengers: Infinity War and the emergence of her alternate self in Endgame and Vol. 3. The filmmaker then dropped the bombshell that, actually, it wasn’t that big of a deal for him as he was already intending to kill Gamora off himself in Vol. 2.
“Gamora almost died in Vol. 2. I knew from the beginning that Zoe only wanted to play the character for so many years… and so I was gonna have her die. I thought she was going to be the one to sacrifice herself, and Quill was going to learn about himself, as opposed to Yondu in the second movie. And I thought different of it, I was kind of talked out of it, by Kevin [Feige] and Lou [D’Esposito] and it just didn’t work that well, it just didn’t feel right. It felt much more right to go where we go in that movie, that seemed what was correct for the story.”
Gunn went on to admit he took some persuading to write out Yondu instead of Gamora, as he didn’t want to kick his good friend and frequent collaborator Michael Rooker out of a job. That said, he’s now firmly of the opinion that Yondu’s death was what Vol. 2 needed. What’s more, he was delighted when the Russos revealed their Infinity War plans for him, as it inspired fresh ideas for Vol. 3.
“So a lot of things I was planning on dealing with I dealt with through what the Russos did, in which they called me up and said ‘we’re thinking about this, does this work? Can you work with this?’ And I went ‘God, yeah, I really can.’ And I think it works really well for the third movie.”
Naturally, you can’t unload a game-changing “what if…?” like this on the fandom without inspiring some intense discussion. Sure enough, folks are busying themselves trying to imagine what this would’ve meant for the plot of IW.
Others aren’t so interested in what could’ve happened — they’re just glad that it didn’t.
Meanwhile, some remain confused as to how Gamora is back in the first place — despite the answer being found in the second biggest movie ever made.
Whatever her alternate fate might’ve been, we’ll find out the ultimate end of Gamora’s journey come Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s release on May 5.
