Six years to the day after the movie originally premiered in theaters, director James Gunn is celebrating the anniversary of the original Guardians of the Galaxy. First released on the big screen in the United States on Aug. 1, 2014, the blockbuster superhero movie was a tremendous hit at the box office, earning hundreds of millions of dollars in worldwide ticket sale profits. The movie was a big hit with viewers and critics as well, pulling in a 91% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 92% audience score.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 opened 6 years ago today. Wow,” James Gunn said in a post on Twitter, acknowledging the anniversary of one of his most celebrated movies. The filmmaker also includes four photos from behind the scenes of the Marvel movie, showing the filmmaker hamming it up on the set with some of the movie’s stars like Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, and Djimon Hounsou. It seems pretty clear that this would have been one particularly fun project to be a part of for Gunn and his Guardians cast if the bright smiles on all of their faces would seem to be any indication.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1 opened 6 years ago today. Wow. pic.twitter.com/krClcHQBpP
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) August 1, 2020
Based on the comic book superhero team of the same name created by Marvel Comics, Guardians of the Galaxy was directed by Gunn with a screenplay co-written by Gunn and Nicole Perlman. Its ensemble cast featured Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Michael Rooker as Yondu, Karen Gillan as Nebula, and Djimon Hounsou as Korath. Based on the movie’s incredible success, Gunn followed suit with the follow-up movie Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which was released in theaters in 2017 with even better results at the box office.
Of course, we would have gotten three Guardians of the Galaxy movies by now, if not for the infamous controversy that saw Gunn ousted from Disney in 2018 based on tasteless tweets posted to Twitter many years prior. At the time, the Guardians cast rallied behind Gunn, pleading with Disney to bring back the filmmaker to resume work on Vol. 3. Though Disney has since relented and brought Gunn back into the fold to develop his third Guardians movie, the project will not have to wait until the filmmaker is completely finished with The Suicide Squad reboot he developed for DC and Warner Bros.
For what it’s worth, Gunn believes The Suicide Squad will satisfy his fans for now while they wait for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. “I am beyond excited and we have MAJOR SURPRISES in store for the fans,” Gunn also said on Twitter of the Suicide Squad reboot. The filmmaker also teased more information to come in The Suicide Squad panel for DC FanDome virtual experience on Saturday, Aug. 22. You can find out more information about the free online event at DCFanDome.com. This story comes to us from James Gunn on Twitter.
