James Gunn reveals which Avenger he didn’t want to have in Guardians films

James Gunn said he refused to write Thor into the Guardians of the Galaxy film series despite the Norse god joining the Guardians at the end of Avengers: Endgame.

In a new interview, the director of The Suicide Squad explained why he didn’t include Thor in the third instalment of the Guardians series.

“I said in the script notes, ‘I’m not gonna put him in. I don’t want to have Thor in the Guardians. I don’t want to do a movie with Thor,’” he told Entertainment Weekly.

“I don’t understand the character that much. I love watching his movies, and I love Chris Hemsworth as a guy. I don’t understand how to write that character.”

Thor and the Guardians, played by Chris Pratt (Peter Quill), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Vin Diesel (Groot), and Bradley Cooper (Rocket), ended up working together in the fourth Thor movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, written and directed by Taika Waititi.

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Gunn, currently promoting the upcoming Superman film, also explained how his experience writing and directing the Guardians trilogy taught him to be careful with post-credits scenes.

“I did not like what I did in Guardians 2 where we set up Adam Warlock and we set up the Guardians of the Galaxy and we set up all this shit that I didn’t necessarily plan on,” he said.

Adam Warlock, played by Will Poulter, first appeared in a mid-credits scene at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.

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“Well, I guess I kind of planned on fulfilling that promise, but you want to be careful about that. The way a post-credits scene works is a punch to the face, like, ‘Oh my God! Look at this.’ At times when you’re using it just solely to set something up, sometimes you’re screwing yourself over. It was not easy to work Adam Warlock into Guardians 3,” he said.

“I loved working with Will, and I liked dealing with the character, but at the end of the day, was he kind of fitting a weird square peg into a round hole? A little bit, yeah.”

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Recently, Gunn told DC fans that they would get a “really big” cameo in the second season of Peacemaker, the Suicide Squad spin-off starring John Cena.

“We see a bunch of other characters later on in the season from other parts of the DCU and from Superman,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “There might even be one really, really, really big cameo near the end of the show.”

While Gunn did not reveal any names for the mystery cameo, it is possible that Superman, played by David Corenswet, could make an appearance, since the Justice League star made a cameo in the season one finale, which was released in 2022.

An appearance from Corenswet is possible due to the close connection between Peacemaker and Superman, which Gunn developed simultaneously.