Assembling the Awesome Mix Vol. 3 – How James Gunn Crafted the Soundtrack for Guardians Vol. 3

With each entry in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise came an equally as awesome soundtrack to accompany the film. Awesome Mix Vol. 1 ended up placing top of the charts of the Billboard 200 for eleven consecutive weeks in 2014 and sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide. 3 years later, Disney would release Awesome Mix Vol. 2 with the release of the second Guardians film. By the end of the year, the album would place 8th in the best selling albums of the year. Vol. 2 would also be the best selling cassette tape in 2017, selling over 19,000 units in the US.

Through the decisions of director and writer James Gunn, the livelihoods of several artists from the past would be forever changed. Both Vol 1 and Vol 2 not only influenced pop culture and a surge of popularity for artists such as Blue Swede or Fleetwood Mac, but it impacted the market for CDs, vinyl and even cassette tapes. To say that Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy left a major footprint in pop culture would be a vast understatement. So how does one go about trying to recreate the magic for a third and final film and soundtrack?

Good Music by Good Bands

In a virtual press conference for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, James Gunn revealed the process he went about for selecting the soundtrack for the film.

“…I want to give good music to people by good bands.” Gunn said when asked about how he decides what songs to include. “You know, …it was very difficult choosing the music for this movie because with the first two movies, they were basically all 70’s pop hits. In this one, Yondu gives Peter Quill a Zune,… and it’s music from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000s.” With such a broader range in eras to select music from, Gunn felt almost overwhelmed with options. But not all the decisions were hard. “I snuck a couple of my favorites in there. …the Replacements, …Alice Cooper,…”

Gunn revealed that he has lists upon lists of songs that he looks to add to his films. “[And] there’s things that I have on lists that I could never use. “Cruel to be Kind” by Nick Lowe has been on every list that I’ve had [for the Guardians films].” Oh how I wish Gunn had found a spot to incorporate that classic song into his trilogy.

Songs on Set

Slight spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ahead.

When writing the script for the final Guardians film, Gunn would already have songs picked out for some of the scenes. One such scene would be epic one-shot action scene with all the Guardians fighting against The High Evolutionary’s hideous army of animal hybrids. And what song could match the level of awesomeness better than “No Sleep Til Brooklyn” by the Beastie Boys? The fight scene ends with this badass shot of the whole Guardians team walking through the massive ship in slow motion as the song comes to an end. Pom Klementieff, who plays Mantis, brought up the day they filmed this scene and had the Beastie Boys song playing on set. “It was so
cool and you felt so cool with the Guardians of the Galaxy costumes. And just, like, walking, slow motion.” Klementieff gushed.

While the music helped the actors get into character on set, sometimes the music was needed before even arriving to set.

Chukwudi Iwuji (The High Evolutionary) discussed how he spent a long time looking into classical music to figure out how to bring this big Marvel villain to life. “…the first thing that’s written when you meet [The High Evolutionary] is him listening to a Space Opera.” Iwuji explained. “So, immediately I knew classical music was gonna be a big part of this character. I thought I would just listen to a lot of classical, and sent them to [Gunn], and they actually, one or two of them, made it onto the film.” Iwuji stole the show with every scene he was in and a big part of this was definitely the selection in music that accompanied his scenes.

What do you think of Awesome Mix Vol. 3? What songs do you wish were included at some point in the Guardians trilogy? Sound off in the comments, check out my thoughts on the film here and catch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 exclusively in theaters now!