Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn and a former Marvel colleague, the artist Anthony Francisco, are reminiscing on Twitter about a scene in the film where alien creatures are pitted against each other, somewhat similar to a cockfight.
In the film, there’s a scene at a bar on Knowhere where several smaller creatures called Orlonis are thrown into a pit with one larger creature about the size of a dog, a F’saki. The patrons at the Boot of Jemiah watering hole then throw money down to bet on which Orlonis will be the last surviving one as the F’saki devours them one by one. The scene arguably emphasizes the lawlessness found in the mining colony Exitar.
Francisco, a former Marvel Studios Senior Visual Development Artist, shared on Twitter Monday a glimpse at some of the early designs for the F’saki creature, which were re-tweeted by Gunn.
The post is a screen capture of a Facebook post Gunn made several years ago lauding Francisco’s nuanced design of the creature, which the director said he wanted to make “both disgusting and innocent.”
“Thank you for the kind words!” Francisco wrote. “@JamesGunn you have no idea how important that was during that time to be recognized and seen. I am grateful to have worked on your films.” He added he “Can’t wait” for the world to see the third installment of the series.
Check out the post for yourself right here.
Though Francisco now works as the creative director for Dolphin Entertainment and is no longer with Marvel, we’re sure there will be plenty of well-crafted creatures and effects when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters May 5, 2023.