Thor first met the Guardians of the Galaxy in Avengers: Infinity War and later decided to join the team's ranks in Avengers: Endgame. The God of Thunder joining the team was an exciting prospect, but one James Gunn never planned on exploring in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
The "Asgardians of the Galaxy" idea has potential, but the decision to have Thor join the team was one Marvel Studios made after Gunn briefly parted ways with Disney.
"They chose to have that ending in editing. And I didn’t think it was gonna be in there," the DC Studios co-CEO tells Rolling Stone. "Endgame came out right after I decided to do Guardians again. So I didn’t have much say in what was in Endgame, and then it came out and then I was like, 'What the f*** am I gonna do?'"
"That’s when [Marvel Studios president] Kevin [Feige] told me Taika’s gonna do Thor, and we’ll have the Guardians in it. I said 'Thank God!'"
The filmmaker went on to explain that, no matter what happened between Avengers: Endgame and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, there was never a version of the story that included the Thunder God.
"To be completely honest, Thor was never going to be in this movie. Taika took a bullet for me," Gunn says. "Because I was not going to have him in. I was just gonna start up and there’s no Thor."
Marvel Studios might have hoped to bring the Avenger into the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, but Gunn had this story written for a long time before cameras finally started rolling and clearly didn't have a place for Thor in there.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 arrives in theaters on May 5.
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