Why James Gunn Wasn't Entirely Faithful To Guardians Of The Galaxy Comics

Change was necessary.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision, Guardians of the Galaxy director and writer James Gunn opened up about deviating from the classic Marvel comics canon for his pair of superhero flicks. For Gunn, it's all about considering where the film's story is about, and if that means he needs to deviate from the Guardians comics, he'll do it. 

"I always do what's best for the movie. A lot of times that means taking things from the source material, and other times it's changing things," explained Gunn before giving a few examples of the tweaks he's made from the comics for the Guardians movies. 

"I've changed a lot already from the comics with the Guardians. Groot's personality in the first Guardians, which people loved, was nothing like his personality in the comics. He didn't have that puppy-dog innocence that we love about Groot," the filmmaker said. "I don't restrain myself in any way when it comes to using stuff from the comics or not using it." 

One of the biggest changes Gunn made was to Star-Lord's father, swapping his identity from J'Son of Spartax to Ego the Living Planet, which was a major plot point in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Additionally, the filmmaker has previously hinted that attempting to maintain perfect comics accuracy contributed to the least enjoyable parts of the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, namely a "messy villain plot" that can only be in reference to Lee Pace's Ronan the Accuser. 

"There is some messy villain plot stuff in the first movie I'd like to deal with again," Gunn admitted in a recent Facebook Q&A session. "There was a committee working for Marvel at the time (now defunct) who had a lot of input, and that was primarily where it ended up. It just got a little messy."

In the struggle between staying 100 percent faithful to the source material and creating a great movie, it seems the the latter wins every time for Gunn. 

The filmmaker is currently hard at work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which he both writes and directs. While we wait to see more of the galaxy savers on the silver screen, no matter how true-to-the-comics they are, check out how the series' characters should really look.