It’s hard to imagine the MCU without Guardians of the Galaxy, as that 2014 sci-fi adventure helped establish that the franchise could take literally take any C-list (or below) character from the comics and turn them into a fan-favorite. What’s more, the irreverent tone James Gunn brought to the property had a massive impact on the universe overall, arguably inspiring later movies like Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War.
So it’s weird to think that Gunn almost missed out on the chance to direct Guardians as he was initially chasing a video game adaptation instead. One Twitter user asked The Suicide Squad filmmaker if there was a game he thought would make a great movie. In response, Gunn dropped the bombshell that he once was in line to direct a Hitman film.
“Weeks before I got Guardians I pitched a HITMAN movie,” Gunn recalled. “The studio really wanted to hire me, but a producer on the project did not. I was bummed then, but thank God, because I would have never been able to do GotG if they had said yes!”
Fans of the Hitman universe will know that the brand has already spawned two movies, both pretty much as bad as each other. First came 2007’s simply titled Hitman, starring Timothy Olyphant, before 2015’s Agent 47: Hitman tried once more, with Rupert Friend in the title role. Clearly, the second film is the one that Gunn was hoping to make, but luckily for the Marvel universe, he didn’t.
With neither of those outings managing to set cinemagoing audiences alight, it seems the Hitman screen franchise is on hiatus for the foreseeable. Back in 2017, John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad announced that he was working on a TV series, but that’s yet to materialize. It’s possible Hitman could have finally had a hit if James Gunn had gotten that fateful gig, however.