Comic Con: The Marvel Panel! Guardians of the Galaxy panel, footage description and pictures!!

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Although no announcement was made, the rumor of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY making its debut appearance at Comic Con was almost a sure bet. Those that put money down can happily collect, as Marvel did indeed bring the outer space set superheroes to Hall H as part of their massive panel, bringing out director James Gunn and castmembers Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Starlord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer), Benicio Del Toro (The Collector), Lee Pace (Ronan the Accuser), Karen Gillen (Nebula), Djimon Hounsou (Korath the Pursuer), and Michael Rooker (Yondu) to chat about the film, which is currently shooting in London. In fact, we were told that they had just flown in for one day and would be flying back that evening to get back to shooting the movie, so there wasn’t a moment to lose.

The group took to Q&A to kick things off, with Pratt talking about being cast and then having to get into great shape for the role. “They basically said, ‘Great job, but you’re too fat!” said Pratt, who has obviously gotten to the physical level he needs to embody the role of Starlord, who he describes as a “rogue jerk” who learns to help his “new family” during the course of the film. For Saldana, she refers to Gamora basically as “an assassin from space” and Bautista said he “can’t friggin’ believe I got this job” and that he “fought really hard” and even broke down and cried when he got the gig, saying he’s never wanted anything so much in his entire life.

Del Toro was pretty low key and still has yet to begin filming, but seemed enthusiastic (as enthusiastic as Del Toro CAN be that is), while Djimon Hounsou said he’d been filming already as Korath, who is aligned with Thanos. Lee Pace, who is playing Ronan the Accusser, calls his character “a complicated Kree” and Karen Gillen revealed how committed she was to playing Nebula by pulling off her wig to reveal she’s shaved her head for the role. This prompted Michael Rooker, who reminded everyone that “Merle’s dead” after having died twice in one episode on The Walking Dead, to compare bald heads with co-star Gillen.

At that point the usual tease came that they didn’t have anything to show since they just started shooting, but the crowd knew better. The lights went out and the footage began as everyone waited to see just what the hell this GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY thing was all about.

We see a figure walking in a dark, desolate otherworldly location, going into a set of huge doors and walking towards some type of glowing object. As the figure gets closer it’s revealed to be none other than Peter Quill AKA Starlord (Pratt). As he attempts to grab the object, three guards surround him. Pratt’s signature humor is on full display from start to finish, although he’s certainly pulling a lot more physical duty than ever before. Taken to jail, we then see John C. Reilly as Rhomann Dey, rocking a Nova Corps outfit and looking at a screen that displays Starlord, while he reads off his stats and gives some info on who he is. Dey is with another member of the Nova Corps who he bounces off the info with and the question is asked “Who calls him Starlord?” to which Reilly replies, “Only him.” At this point, the humor becomes evident, with Pratt doing the old “wind-up middle finger” move to them and when caught, says, “Oh, sorry, I wasn’t sure how this thing worked.”

Then, we are introduced to the rest of the cast in full GUARDIANS make-up, including Bautista as Drax, Saldana as Gamora, a CGI Groot, and yes, a CGI Rocket Raccoon that looks more raccoon-like than I imagined. That’s not a bad thing at all, as his small stature and movements dictate that he’s the real deal. While locked up, Starlord sees two of the guards messing with a cassette deck that belongs to him with some music playing underneath. When Starlord confronts them the deck is dropped and the trailer kicks into high gear with the music from the device, “Hooked on a Feeling” playing us through the rest of the reel.

The action explodes onscreen with images of Starlord rocking his mask and cloak as seen in the concept art jumping and shooting, Gamora kicking ass, Drax smashing shit, and hell to the yeah, Rocket Raccoon doing some double fisted shooting, mouth agape and enjoying every bad ass second of it. The footage comes to a close with the GUARDIANS logo with “Hooked on a Feeling” playing all the way through.

The footage had me grinning from ear to ear all the way through, laughing out loud with each comic beat and getting those old-school sci-fi feelings right off the bat. It looks so much like an old ’80’s sci-fi actioner like ICE PIRATES or BUCKAROO BANZAI with all the quirks, but with a much bigger budget and a focus on refined, comic book style action. In short, I think that the “who gives a shit about this” folks will be eating crow when this footage finally drops in one form or another. It looks like a total blast and a welcome change up from the other Marvel offerings, especially with Gunn at the helm. His style is evident once they get going and it’s apparent that Marvel has once again proven their model by hiring someone that truly fits the material.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY hits theaters on August 1, 2014.