The core ensemble are now firmly entrenched as recognizable and popular stars in Hollywood, but when the cast for James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy was first announced, the two biggest names were playing characters that had them confined entirely to the recording booth.
That’s not intended as a dig towards Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, or Karen Gillan, but it would be fair to say that A-list stars Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel were comfortably the most famous faces to board the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first irreverent intergalactic adventure.
It perfectly fit the offbeat tone of the movie to have an action icon with a multi-billion dollar franchise under his belt and a multiple Academy Award nominee keep their marketable faces out of the acclaimed sci-fi spectaculars, with James Gunn confirming what we’d all suspected by revealing on Twitter that neither Diesel nor Cooper had ever set foot on a Guardians of the Galaxy set.
While the news isn’t entirely unexpected, a lot of fans may have been under the impression that the duo might have at least dropped by to say hello to their colleagues and co-workers, but it would appear as though the premieres of the various MCU projects are the only times the entire band gets together.
Gunn makes a point of noting that he doesn’t think those circumstances have changed for Thor: Love and Thunder either, and it’s bizarre to think that two key cogs in a beloved machine like Guardians of the Galaxy haven’t stepped in front of a camera with the rest of the gang before.