Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was, by all measurements available, a resounding success for the studio, drawing rave reviews and yielding an absolutely massive box office haul. Add in that the space-set caper was considered to be Marvel’s riskiest venture yet, and it’s easy to understand why Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has already been greenlit.
For those who saw Guardians of the Galaxy, a rather directly stated revelation right at the end regarding Star-Lord/Peter Quill’s heritage seemed to provide a possible direction for the sequel, which writer-director James Gunn will be returning to helm and scribe.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige recently spoke on the subject of that revelation, which found Quill discovering that his AWOL father was not of Earth, noting, “I think it’s pretty important.” In the comics, Quill’s father was the leader of an alien race called the Spartax, though the lack of an introduction for that species in Guardians means that Marvel isn’t necessarily bound to adhere to the comics. Feige added of Quill’s search for his father, “I think that’s pretty important for [director James Gunn] and would be appropriate” to be covered in a future Guardians installment.
Additionally, Feige touched upon the fate of space pirate Nebula, adopted sister to Gamora and daughter of the Mad Titan Thanos. Explaining that she was allowed to get away from the climactic battle intentionally, Feige said, “We have somebody like Karen [Gillan], and you have a look that is so weird and so great. I think that’s something we’d all like to see again.”
The Marvel head also teased that the comic-book version of Nebula had “a lot of varying different roles to play over the course of a lot of different titles,” suggesting that the character may show up somewhere other than Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Seeing as Marvel is currently looking for a way to connect the Guardians to the Avengers back on Earth, perhaps Nebula could serve as that link, crash-landing on Earth or masterminding a plot against the Avengers.
On that note, Feige admitted that there’s still a lot to figure out with regard to a meeting between the Guardians and the Avengers (something we probably will not see until after Guardians of the Galaxy 2):
“Who knows if and when these guys would ever connect, but it is fun thinking about, how would Steve Rogers react to Rocket? Or, you’re right, Drax couldn’t even have a conversation with Tony Stark!”
The future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has honestly never looked so promising thanks to all the universe building that Guardians did, so it’s going to be terrific to see where the studio takes all its characters next. Currently, fans can expect Avengers: Age of Ultron on May 1st next year; Ant-Man on July 17th, Captain America 3 on May 6th, 2016; Doctor Strange on July 8th, 2016; an untitled pic on May 5th, 2017; and then Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on July 28th, 2017.