Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn hates killing and resurrecting dead characters in films. He says it makes storytelling “cheap.”
As per Comicbook, director James Gunn hates the idea of bringing back dead characters in movies. Interestingly, the MCU has followed this method, if not wholly, for the last few years.
James Gunn shares his thoughts
Yes I do worry about that. For me there’s a difference between truly meaningful deaths & plot twist deaths where someone seems to die & then hasn’t. But if you milk that death – like, say, Yondu or Tony Stark – it’s cheap storytelling to bring them back. https://t.co/J6aWLrF2pp
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 8, 2021
Gunn believes there is always a significant meaning to the storytelling when someone dies. And that meaning might become irrelevant by resurrecting that dead person. As per the Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker, this formula doesn’t always work.
In a recent Twitter Q&A, James Gunn expressed his thoughts regarding the revival of dead characters in superhero movies. A fan asked him whether he worries about a name coming back after getting killed.
“Yes, I do worry about that,” he answered.
“For me, there’s a difference between significant deaths & plot twist deaths where someone seems to die & then hasn’t. But if you milk that death-like, say, Yondu or Tony Stark – it’s cheap storytelling to bring them back.”
When another fan said that such resurrections would make MCU accurate just like the comics, Gunn still stood by his point. He said that they should be different things.
Speaking in terms of just the MCU, then it has happened several times. For example, Nick Fury first died (although he faked it) in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Then he was snapped away in Avengers: Infinity War. In the latter case, he died literally but still came back in Endgame.
But coming back to James Gunn, then it seems likely that at least in his next GOTG 3 film, there won’t be a revival. Like the character of Yondu, who died in Vol.2, shouldn’t be expected to come back suddenly.
Upcoming MCU entries
Meanwhile, the biggest superhero film franchise is currently overloaded with a lot of new content. Although they are ready to come out, the pandemic has become an inevitable super-villain at the moment.
Despite the arrival of fresh content with WandaVision and soon-to-arrive Falcon and the Winter Soldier, things aren’t entirely hopeful. Especially on the side of Marvel movies, scheduled to come out soon. Now it looks like they won’t even witness a traditional release across the globe due to rising COVID-19 cases.
Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and Eternals are those entries facing the threat of missing a theatrical debut. Most of the cinema halls are currently shut down. And if the situation remains unchanged, these films will only come out on Disney Plus, exclusively.
Moving further than the future installments under Marvel Studios might also suffer due to the delay of currently lined-up movies. For example, Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2, and the third part of Guardians of the Galaxy under James Gunn. They, along with many other projects, might witness an uncertain and extended push.
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