Guardians of the Galaxy is a little over two months out, which means Disney and Marvel are in full marketing mode. This week brought us an action-packed poster, some new interviews, and a trailer for a trailer, because that’s the world we live in. Let’s get to it.
The big focus this week has been on characters. Names like Rocket Raccoon and Groot don’t carry the same weight as, say, Captain America, so a lot of digital ink has gone toward pulling in the uninitiated. Speaking with Movies.com, actor Chris Pratt (who plays Star-Lord) says that the Guardians’ relative obscurity is actually a benefit for him.
I don’t really think [the lack of familiarity] affects me. I think it’s probably helpful that people don’t know who [Star-Lord] is, because it would be my intention to want to make this my own anyways. But I feel like that was something Robert Downey Jr. did with Iron Man…for most people, he is Tony Stark. And that’s something I would like to do too. To keep it real and keep it close to who I am, and maybe the fact that no one knows these characters will be helpful.
It’ll probably be helpful too, because you look at those Star Wars prequels that came out—there’s a lot of expectation there. To shoulder a project on preconceived notions and expectations and all these things just really makes it difficult. You spend the whole movie trying to satisfy what people think they know about a character. The first Star Wars didn’t have that problem because it was all brand new. You just take it for what it is. So basically, what I’m saying is we’ll be better than Star Wars. [Laughs]
Getting the perspective from the other side of the camera, Digital Spy asked director James Gunn about some of the film’s quirks — for instance, the fact that it’s got a talking raccoon in it.
…it’s very important that [Guardians] is not the Avengers with Bugs Bunny in the centre of it. It’s really important that Rocket is a real creature, and I love him, and he is the heart of the movie. He’s the most representative of the Guardians in that he is this mangled beast that was taken and experimented on and torn apart and put back together, and we have to feel that character’s soul. If we feel that character’s soul and we know him and we love him, we see his plight and see why he is such an angry little guy, then the movie will work.
For newcomers who want a crash course in the dramatis personae, Disney news site Stitch Kingdom posted the official character descriptions for the film. Head here for the full list (minor spoilers ahead).
A new full trailer will be hitting the internet on Monday, along with a live Facebook Q&A at 10 AM PST. But because a trailer in and of itself isn’t hype enough, here’s the newly released teaser. For the trailer. I’m still not quite over that.
- Last Month’s Guardians Teaser
- New Guardians of the Galaxy Pics
- Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan’s GotG Fight Scene
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