James Gunn On Infinity Gems And 'The Collector's' Museum In GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Spoiler warning! The director of Guardians of the Galaxy gushes about developing the sequence involving Infinity Stones, as well as The Collector and his Easter egg-filled collection. Check it out!
Source: Hitfix, The Playlist, Speakeasy, Slash Film
After the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) makes a brief appearance, Guardians of the Galaxy reveals another big connection to the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe at the beginning of its second act. When Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket, and Groot visit The Collector (Benicio Del Toro) inside his Easter egg-filled museum, they find out not only the true power of the Orb they possess, but also that the gem is just one of six highly-coveted Infinity Stones. While two of the gems have already been showcased in Marvel Studios' previous movies (the Tesseract in The Avengers and the Aether in Thor: The Dark World), none of Earth's mightiest heroes are yet aware of the great danger that will come if/when a certain someone was to collect all six stones and form a certain gauntlet.
"These are people that see a little bit more of the big picture because that's where they are, I guess," says director James Gunn to HitFix of the Guardians. "On Earth, these other guys, The Avengers, they're not quite tuned in to the bigger picture. They only see a little tiny piece of it. They're holding the ear of the elephant in the dark room. The Collector is… he's got all the lights on." During an interview with The Playlist, Gunn gushed about creating the Infinity Gems and how much he brought to Guardians of the Galaxy versus what Marvel dictated. "We talked early on about having Thanos in the movie, which, believe me I was excited to have Thanos in the movie because a) I love Thanos and b) I want people who have seen The Avengers to go see this because we're connected to it," he said. "There was no fight from me having Thanos in the movie. But for me, I wrote a group of characters with the plot points I wanted to write and the stuff that's connected to the rest of the Marvel universe was very exciting for me to be a part of. To just sit down and create what the Infinity Gems are, I got to sit down and add to the overall Marvel universe and build up the Marvel universe, because I got to create that. And that was very exciting to me." Regarding which gem from the comics does the Orb represent in Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn took to Twitter to confirm it is the Power Stone. Given the Aether is the Reality Stone, and the Tesseract is the Space Gem, that leaves the Mind, Time, and Soul Gems to be explored. Which could be in the Guardians sequel and/or The Avengers 3.
Anyhow, back to The Collector, aka Taneleer Tivan, James Gunn also revealed that he had the most fun on Guardians of the Galaxy doing the scenes involving the character's museum, which featured Cosmo the space dog and, of course, Howard the Duck. "I was a big Howard the Duck fan when I was a kid; the comics, not the movie," he told Speakeasy. Meanwhile, the director also acknowledged that a Chitauri and a Dark Elf are also in The Collector's collection. When Slash Film asked if all these things are teases for the future, James Gunn said, "Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of stuff in the Collector’s Museum. And for me, it was mostly just really fun. As a Marvel fan, giving the actual fans something that they can freeze frame on their Blu-Ray at home and just kind of pick out everything that’s in there. So there are, I mean, seriously all those boxes have something interesting in them, so it’s pretty fun." Also, Kevin Feige reveals that there is a nod to James Gunn's Slither movie in the museum, which many haven't noticed. What do you think?
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits–Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Peter discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand - with the galaxy’s fate in the balance. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is presented by Marvel Studios and stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, Lee Pace, Michael Rooker, Karen Gilian, Djimon Hounsou with John C. Reilly, Glenn Close as Commander Rael and Benicio del Toro as The Collector. Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, the film opens August 1, 2014