After countless shortlist stories and rumors concerning who would play Star-Lord in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the search for the lead role is finally over, and fittingly the actor is someone who never appeared on any of the aforementioned lists. Deadline reports that Chris Pratt has been tapped to play Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, a character who was born of a human mother and alien father, and is a master strategist and combat expert who wears an ability-enhancing suit and pilots a psychically-linked ship. As Guardians features a cast of strange and cosmic characters, Quill was an important role to fill because he will likely act as the audience’s introduction to the vast, unfamiliar Guardians world. Hit the jump for more.
There were plenty of actors rumored for the role that made a lot of sense (John Krasinski, Zachary Levi, etc.), and Deadline notes that Marvel made test deals with Joel Edgerton, Jack Huston, Lee Pace, and Eddie Redmayne, but Chris Pratt actually seems like a perfect fit. His comic timing is excellent as evidenced by his work on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, and he’s shown his talent on the dramatic side with Moneyball and 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty, for which he also proved that he can beef up for a role if need-be.
Looking back on the previous shortlists and taking Pratt into consideration, it’s clear that writer/director James Gunn is planning on injecting a good amount of humor into Guardians of the Galaxy. A rumor surfaced recently that Marvel was looking at possibly tapping Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler to do voice work in the film (one of the guardians is a talking raccoon), so I’m interested to see the tone that Gunn settles on for the finished film.
With the role of Star-Lord secure, Gunn and Marvel now look to filling out the rest of the cast, which includes the powerful Drax the Destroyer, a giant tree named Groot, the aforementioned Rocket Raccoon, and the female lead Gamora. The story is also rumored to involve the villain Thanos. Expect to hear more soon as production gears up to begin later this year. Guardians of the Galaxy will be released in 3D on August 1, 2014. [Reply]
I remember reading the IG series as a kid and thinking it would make the best movie series ever. Never thought they would ever make it though.
It really is a childhood dream come true. Broke out all my old comics not to0o long back and still have them all in perfect condition.
I wonder if they will continue on the Infinity war when it's over. [Reply]
Yeah. Making white characters black for the movies is nothing new (Kingpin and Nick Fury are two of the best-represented characters on screen), but . . .
A. They've never changed ethnicities to any other race but black. The more this goes on the more it seems like they're singling it out, which sounds a lot like tokenism.
B. Johnny (the Human Torch) and Sue (Invisible Woman) are brother and sister, and they're apparently keeping that relationship intact. They'll have to explain that somehow, and that elevates the ethnic change from "he just happens to be black" to a storyline change, which reeks even more of tokenism.
C. Why didn't they make Reed black? He'd be a perfect candidate, and . . .
D. The guy playing Reed looks about 12; Reed is in his forties or so and one of his defining characteristics is his greying temples. Also . . .
E. Jamie Bell as the Thing? Jamie Bell was Billy Elliott. I've taken craps bigger than him.
F. Honestly, their biggest problem is that they're basing it off the atrocious fanfiction-y Ultimate series. For those who don't read comics, the 'Ultimate Universe' is a sort of parallel world they invented about 15 years ago. It's terrible - all style with no substance, with stories based mostly on shock value alone while butchering perfectly good characters, and perpetually selling only mediocre numbers but inexplicably still around. The 'Ultimate Fantastic Four' is totally unlike the characters and storyline we know: Reed is a boneless jelly-man who becomes an evil mastermind; Sue married Ben; Johnny sheds his skin periodically and hates being on the team; and Dr. Doom is a small-timer with cloven hooves and acid blood like in Alien.
It's stupidity all around, and I'll call it now: It will be a bad, bad movie. Like, Green Lantern levels of powerful bad. I wish they'd left it alone. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Aries Walker:
Yeah. Making white characters black for the movies is nothing new (Kingpin and Nick Fury are two of the best-represented characters on screen), but . . .
A. They've never changed ethnicities to any other race but black. The more this goes on the more it seems like they're singling it out, which sounds a lot like tokenism.
B. Johnny (the Human Torch) and Sue (Invisible Woman) are brother and sister, and they're apparently keeping that relationship intact. They'll have to explain that somehow, and that elevates the ethnic change from "he just happens to be black" to a storyline change, which reeks even more of tokenism.
C. Why didn't they make Reed black? He'd be a perfect candidate, and . . .
D. The guy playing Reed looks about 12; Reed is in his forties or so and one of his defining characteristics is his greying temples. Also . . .
E. Jamie Bell as the Thing? Jamie Bell was Billy Elliott. I've taken craps bigger than him.
F. Honestly, their biggest problem is that they're basing it off the atrocious fanfiction-y Ultimate series. For those who don't read comics, the 'Ultimate Universe' is a sort of parallel world they invented about 15 years ago. It's terrible - all style with no substance, with stories based mostly on shock value alone while butchering perfectly good characters, and perpetually selling only mediocre numbers but inexplicably still around. The 'Ultimate Fantastic Four' is totally unlike the characters and storyline we know: Reed is a boneless jelly-man who becomes an evil mastermind; Sue married Ben; Johnny sheds his skin periodically and hates being on the team; and Dr. Doom is a small-timer with cloven hooves and acid blood like in Alien.
It's stupidity all around, and I'll call it now: It will be a bad, bad movie. Like, Green Lantern levels of powerful bad. I wish they'd left it alone.
This.
I HATE the alternate universe shit. Dumbest shit Marvel ever did. Leave it to Fox to use that story arc for one of the biggest Marvel groups. So stupid.
The FF movies were horrible. No reason to think they will be any better this time.
Selling those properties and, my God, including the Surfer and Galactus with them, is the biggest mistake marvel has made, by far. [Reply]
I'm done with the Fantastic Four and they haven't even filmed a frame yet. Christ.
What's next, the Silver Surfer is going to have a flying droid sidekick that feeds him the Power Cosmic? Galactus is going to be a collective of two dozen ancient Pygmies riding in a giant construct? Fuck me. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bowser:
I'm done with the Fantastic Four and they haven't even filmed a frame yet. Christ.
What's next, the Silver Surfer is going to have a flying droid sidekick that feeds him the Power Cosmic? Galactus is going to be a collective of two dozen ancient Pygmies riding in a giant construct? **** me.
It really is a shame that I have zero interest in seeing a movie that might include the SS and Galactus.
I have zero faith that the movie has any chance what so ever of doing the characters any justice. [Reply]
I'm fine with Marvel switching up race and ethnicity of secondary characters. A lot of these comic book characters were created before the civil rights movement so there either were no blacks or they were extremely stereotypical. Seriously, check out early incarnations of Luke Cage/Power Man.
With that said, I'd agree that they should try a bit harder to include a more diverse palate as opposed to basically just making everyone black. Off the top of my head, the only switch I can think of that wasn't white-to-black was the Asian warrior dude from Thor.
.. Speaking of all of this Avengers and Galactus/Thanos stuff, these next few movies would be perfect timing to introduce guys like Luke Cage and Black Panther. Without being able to get the rights to Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, I'm not sure where Marvel is planning on getting the firepower to take down a guy like Thanos, especially powered by the Infinity Gauntlet. They did a pretty good job of showing off Stark and Banner's scientific acumen but a guy like Black Panther could fill in for Reed Richard's brilliance in a pinch. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThaVirus:
I'm fine with Marvel switching up race and ethnicity of secondary characters. A lot of these comic book characters were created before the civil rights movement so there either were no blacks or they were extremely stereotypical. Seriously, check out early incarnations of Luke Cage/Power Man.
With that said, I'd agree that they should try a bit harder to include a more diverse palate as opposed to basically just making everyone black. Off the top of my head, the only switch I can think of that wasn't white-to-black was the Asian warrior dude from Thor.
.. Speaking of all of this Avengers and Galactus/Thanos stuff, these next few movies would be perfect timing to introduce guys like Luke Cage and Black Panther. Without being able to get the rights to Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, I'm not sure where Marvel is planning on getting the firepower to take down a guy like Thanos, especially powered by the Infinity Gauntlet. They did a pretty good job of showing off Stark and Banner's scientific acumen but a guy like Black Panther could fill in for Reed Richard's brilliance in a pinch.
I'm not sure they are going to be able to make Thanos as powerful as he is in the comics, and even if so, Thanos was tricked into losing the power anyway.
It really doesn't matter who they pit against him, he destroyed even the mighty Eternity with the IG. He is invincible any way you slice it, and will have to be tricked or something for him to lose.
Maybe they will pull what they did when the Magus had the guantlet, and one of the gems will be a fake or something rendering him vulnerable.
It will be interesting to see how they pull it off. [Reply]
Cage is going to be in the Netflix Defenders series, so they can't use him. And Hogun (the Asian warrior-dude) has always been Asian in the comics; his people were Mongol Horde-like. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ThaVirus:
I'm fine with Marvel switching up race and ethnicity of secondary characters. A lot of these comic book characters were created before the civil rights movement so there either were no blacks or they were extremely stereotypical. Seriously, check out early incarnations of Luke Cage/Power Man.
With that said, I'd agree that they should try a bit harder to include a more diverse palate as opposed to basically just making everyone black. Off the top of my head, the only switch I can think of that wasn't white-to-black was the Asian warrior dude from Thor.
.. Speaking of all of this Avengers and Galactus/Thanos stuff, these next few movies would be perfect timing to introduce guys like Luke Cage and Black Panther. Without being able to get the rights to Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, I'm not sure where Marvel is planning on getting the firepower to take down a guy like Thanos, especially powered by the Infinity Gauntlet. They did a pretty good job of showing off Stark and Banner's scientific acumen but a guy like Black Panther could fill in for Reed Richard's brilliance in a pinch.
Introducing the guardians gives you quite a bit of firepower against Thanos. Although I wish Adam Warlock was in the movie, as he is by far the most powerful Guardian. The movie will also introduce the Nova Corps.
They are probably making movies for Panther and Dr. Strange before Avengers 3, so those two will help quite a bit. Not to mention Antman/Giantman. [Reply]