Thanos Was The Main Villain in an Early Draft for Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy is definitely still in my top five MCU films list. At that time, we fans were well-aware of the core Avengers team. They were the characters we had spent a few years with and were comfortable with. Then, Marvel introduced us to a new set of characters. One the average fan didn’t know and a group that comic book fans barely knew. We then left the theater loving these “bunch of assholes” – especially falling in love with a tree and a raccoon. The Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn’t be where it is today without the Guardians.

In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 1, Starlord and his new band of misfits must prevent Ronan the Accuser from destroying the planet of Xandar. GOTG really added to the mythos of the Infinity Stones and gave us a better look into Thanos. A character that had been teased at the end of the first Avengers movie, but we hadn’t really seen him at that point. We knew that the MCU was leading to Thanos, but it was an unexpected treat to see him featured in Guardians.

Apparently, Thanos was meant to have a much larger role in the first Guardians of the Galaxy film. In fact, he was meant to be the main villain. Before director James Gunn joined, Marvel screenwriter Nicole Perlman worked on the project in 2009. It should also be noted that Gunn has stated that at the time there was a Marvel Creative Committee that had a lot of input and muddied Lee Pace’s Ronan. That committee is now disbanded.

Perlman had originally wanted Thanos as the main villain at the time, but states that the powers that be had bigger plans for Thanos other than an introductory film [t o the Guardians]:

“He’s a super-fantastic cosmic villain. Thanos was the antagonist was for my drafts all the way through. … But after I had handed in my draft, I think they wanted to keep him for later movies.”

As we saw, Thanos was well worth the wait. He was the big bad in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. It made sense to keep him on ice until those huge event films. With some Thanos sprinkled in throughout the MCU. Personally, I loved Pace’s Ronan and clearly, he was popular enough to warrant even a small comeback in 2019’s Captain Marvel. Admittedly, I’d love to see more of Ronan, despite him having been killed in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Source: Screen Rant


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