James Gunn Didn't Get His First Choices For Guardians Of The Galaxy - Except One

Looking back at writer-director James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy and the other Marvel Cinematic Universe chapters the characters appear in, it's hard to imagine anyone other than Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, and Zoe Saldaña playing Star-Lord, Drax, Nebula, and Gamora, respectively.

However, only one of the four key live-action actors was on Gunn's original wish list of stars for the film. In the Disney+ special, "Marvel Studios: Assembled," which chronicles the making of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," the filmmaker reflected upon the casting of the core characters before one frame of the first film was shot.

"When I first went to Marvel and I pitched 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' I brought a little book," Gunn said in the special (via The Direct). "I had worked very hard trying to put this little book together of all the little pictures and photo references, and all that stuff."

Naturally, part of Gunn's book was the Guardians characters and the actors he hoped would play them. "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," Gunn noted.

Of course, two Guardians in James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" trilogy are Rocket and Groot — a pair of motion capture characters voiced by Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel, respectively. As for the other four live-action principals, three were subjected to endless hours in the makeup chair.

While Zoe Saldaña was grateful to Gunn for casting her as Gamora, she noted how she wouldn't miss her transformation into the green-skinned character. "I want to thank you [Gunn], you have been a wonderful person," she said in the "Marvel Studios: Assembled" special. "You believed in me before I even believed in myself. So, thank you for sticking by me. I'm going to miss Gamora, but I'm not going to miss the four hours of makeup."

Luckily, Saldaña wasn't required to wear any heavy makeup for the other major film franchises she's starred in, either as Uhura in the "Star Trek" movie reboot trilogy or Neytiri, which she brings to life through motion-capture performances in James Cameron's "Avatar" series.

By the looks of it, the chances of the actor returning to the makeup chair for hours in another franchise look pretty slim since Saldaña wants to get out of the blockbuster business.

In a November 2022 interview, she acknowledged she loved bringing happiness to viewers in franchise films, but the jobs came with a downside. "It also meant that I felt artistically stuck in my craft of not being able to expand or grow or challenge myself by playing different sorts of genres and different roles," she told Women's Wear Daily.