Marvel’s long-awaited foray into the cosmic side of its cinematic universe begins on August 1 in Guardians of the Galaxy, but just like with the rest of the studio’s films, audiences will always be looking for hints of what the future holds as they’re watching the movie itself. In a recent interview during the Guardians of the Galaxy promotional circuit, director James Gunn shared a few details about his vision for the recently announced sequel and the Marvel universe that’s become quite a bit larger thanks to his film.
“I know a lot of where I want to go,” Gunn told Film Divider. “I have a lot of ideas for stories and characters that are going to appear, and there are documents written up, that some people have, about Peter Quill’s father and his relationship, a lot of stuff about Yondu and a lot of stuff about Drax that nobody knows.”
Alluding to some further exploration of key characters and races touched upon in the film, Gunn mentioned both the Xandarian and Kree cultures as elements that he’s put a lot of thought into in his own notes, along with the Krylorians and Ravagers. Gunn specifically called out the characters Yondu (Michael Rooker) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) as “important characters” and suggested that “we’ll see more of both of those characters” in the future films.
Asked how much work they’ve already put into the recently announced Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Gunn said there’s a significant amount of narrative already planned out for the film’s sequel, which will likely expand upon the father-son themes touched upon in Guardians of the Galaxy.
“[Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige has stuff. I wrote up a lot,” said Gunn. “He knows all the stuff and if I died tomorrow they could go make a movie. They could write the story of Peter Quill’s father and it would all be there.”
Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters today, August 1.