Guardians of the Galaxy: Only one actor from James Gunn’s original pitch was cast

Last Updated on November 30, 2024

When Guardians of the Galaxy was first announced, many believed that it would be the first flop of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The characters, which included a talking raccoon and a sentient tree, were completely unknown to mainstream audiences. However, James Gunn had a groundbreaking vision for what would become one of Marvel’s most popular series, but that vision might have been quite different if the actors he originally had in mind for the leading roles in Guardians of the Galaxy were cast.

In the Marvel Studios’ Assembled: The Making of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 documentary on Disney+ (via ComicBookMovie), James Gunn said that none of the actors in his original pitch ended up playing the characters, with the exception of one.

“When I first went to Marvel and I pitched Guardians of the Galaxy, I brought a little book,” Gunn said. “I had worked very hard trying to put this little book together of all the little pictures and photo references, and all that stuff. And in that book, there were all the characters listed and who I thought should play those characters. And of course, none of those actors who were in that book ended up playing the characters, except for Zoe Saldaña, who I met and loved from the beginning.”

It’s hard to imagine seeing anyone other than Chris Pratt play Peter Quill (a.k.a. Star Lord), and the same goes for many of his co-stars: Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon, Vin Diesel as Groot, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Sean Gunn as Kraglin Obfonteri, Michael Rooker as Yondua Udonta, Pom Klementieff as sequel addition Mantis… you get the idea. I think we can be glad the cast came together so beautifully in the end.

The cast Gunn assembled for Guardians of the Galaxy went on to appear not only in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but also Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Thor: Love and Thunder.