'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2': James Gunn Describes Greater Freedom — and Raising His Game for Baby Groot's Dance Moves
With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 set to debut in early May, information is trickling out about the highly anticipated Marvel sequel. Courtesy of its writer/director James Gunn, we know that it’ll be “a richer, more emotional film,” that it’ll have a post-credits stinger, that it’ll put an emphasis on its strong female characters, that it’ll feature a “fantastic” Sylvester Stallone performance in a still-undisclosed role, that it’ll boast a Rob Zombie vocal cameo, and that it’s reasonable to expect there will be a third installment one day. And to all that, Gunn this past weekend added some further tidbits about the intergalactic superhero adventure in a couple of new interviews.
Speaking at the Writer’s Guild festival on Saturday (via Variety), Gunn disclosed that Chris Pratt’s Star Lord won’t have to wait long to meet his father Ego, the Living Planet (played by Kurt Russell) — since that reunion happens in the film’s first 20 minutes. He also said he had a longer leash to do his own thing for Vol. 2:
“On the second movie I had a lot more freedom,” Gunn told the Writer’s Guild audience, “because the first movie did well and it was great not having to explain the five major characters to the audience in the first half hour. We just go straight into the story.”
Meanwhile, in a chat with Fandango (via Slashfilm), Gunn revealed that Vol. 2 will begin with an elaborate, music-scored, CGI-enhanced showstopper:
“We have a lot of very long effects shots, too. Our opening credits are all to a musical piece, and those opening credits are all one long, huge shot with a lot of practical elements and a lot of special effect elements, and that’s something we finished on the first day of shooting and it still is not totally done yet.”
Perhaps the most eagerly awaited digital effect in Vol. 2 will be Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), a scene-stealer in the film’s prior trailers. And as in the original film’s credit sequence, which featured the pint-sized hero dancing, Gunn himself has again served as the human model for the character’s sweet moves.
“Yes,” he told Fandango, “I still do all of Groot’s dancing in the film, in a much bigger way. I actually had to do like a full day’s worth of dancing to get Groot’s dance down this time. Last time it was me in front of an iPhone, and this time it’s me dancing on a huge soundstage and shooting it from five different angles.”
To read more about Gunn’s latest comments, head over to Variety and Fandango. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 lands in theaters on May 5.
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