Peter Quill/Star-Lord's grandfather (Gregg Henry) was only in one early scene in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, but according to James Gunn, he had slightly bigger plans for the character. While speaking with Slash Film, Gunn described the movie's original ending, which would have included a scene for Henry's Grandpa Quill, as well as another featuring Karen Gillan's Nebula. Just a quick warning: there are a couple spoilers below, but nothing too major.
There are three characters that got cut out [of the "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" montage]: Nebula, the Collector and Grandpa Quill. Nebula and Collector we decided, at a certain point, they’re kind of bad guys in the first movie. It was a real joyous experience with that finale so we thought we’d keep it to the characters that were part of “the good team.” Which includes Yondu. He did fight on the good guys side. So we thought we would keep it to them.
Grandpa Quill we cut because he was in old age make up and we were a little afraid people wouldn’t recognize that it was him from the beginning of the movie. And also, it was a pretty sad moment. It was Grandpa Quill and he has this photograph of Meredith and Peter as a little boy and he looks up at the stars and we go up to the stars and it was really sweet. It means that he must have seen Quill getting abducted at the end of that day and is still waiting for him to return but it was freaking sad so we took it out.
Nebula’s was actually my favorite. Nebula’s I really liked a lot because she’s lost her arm and she’s just pissed off and she’s just walking through this field all pissed off with a busted Ravager vehicle behind her. And she’s just pissed off and I loved it.
Gunn also told Slash Film The Collector's part of the montage did make it into the movie, just not where he originally planned, and added something to the scene. If you've seen the movie, you can probably guess which scene I'm talking about.
I understand why James Gunn cut those scenes, but I'd still like to see them, and it's too bad they probably won't end up on the upcoming Blu-ray/DVD.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY will hit Blu-ray and DVD on December 9, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2 is scheduled to be released on May 5, 2017.