When that image came out of the Guardians of the Galaxy set at the beginning of this month featuring Sakaaran soldiers, many comic book aficionados instantly recalled the Planet Hulk storyline in which the green rage monster is abducted and forced into gladiatorial combat on the planet Sakaar. And seeing as there will definitely be a Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and hopefully a Hulk solo film, some of those fans made another leap, concluding that the inclusion of Sakaaran soldiers suggested the Guardians would encounter an imprisoned Hulk in their sequel and team up with him.
Now, director James Gunn has set the record straight. When asked by The Playlist about the Hulk teaming up with the Guardians, he said, “I can answer that question very easily: it is absolute, 100% bullshit,” adding, “It feels like a great relief to finally say this after all the dumb stuff on the Internet.”
Apparently, this is a classic case of fanboys gone wild, and nothing more. Gunn continued:
“There’s not going to be a ‘Planet Hulk’ movie, there was never going to be a ‘Planet Hulk’ movie, there was never a plan for the Hulk to team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy – I wouldn’t want the Hulk to team up with the Guardians of the Galaxy! And it’s all a bunch of complete bullshit.”
Of course, that’s not to say that Gunn doesn’t understand all the wild speculation – he’s just “sick of it.” Explaining the presence of the Sakaaran race, he said:
“The whole thing is, there’s Sakaraan in the movie. And the reason there’s Sakaraan in the movie is because there aren’t that many alien races in the Marvel Universe, and of those prominent alien races, such as the Kree and the Skrull, I have some very specific ideas for where those races go.”
As for why the Sakaaran were specifically tapped for Guardians of the Galaxy, Gunn admitted:
“The reason we picked the Sakaraan is because we don’t own Badoon. In the script it originally said Badoon. So you can blame search and replace for changing Badoon to Sakaaran and leading to the whole ‘Planet Hulk’ conspiracy.”
There you have it, folks. The definitely Hulk-less Guardians of the Galaxy opens August 1st.
