Gamora's green skin makes her one of the most recognizable superheroes in the MCU, but the fierce intergalactic assassin almost had blue skin in the movies. Guardians of the Galaxy introduced Gamora as the adopted daughter of Thanos, who raised her to be a living weapon after wiping out half of her planet. When she learns of Thanos' ultimate plan of destruction, she escapes from his control and joins the Guardians.

In the comic books, Gamora is depicted as a green-skinned alien from the planet Zen-Whoberis. Actress Zoe Saldana, who plays the tough superhero in the films, sports the distinctive skin color and absolutely nails the look. The actress is set to spend hours in the makeup and costume department again as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 goes into production soon. While the highly anticipated movie won't come out until 2023, director James Gunn has been giving updates and behind-the-scenes trivia to excite the franchise's fans.

Related: Why Guardians of the Galaxy 4 Should Still Happen (Even Without James Gunn)

In a Twitter thread, the Guardians director revealed that he almost turned Gamora blue for the movies, deviating from the character's appearance in the comics. According to Gunn, his initial decision was due to the fact that green is the most difficult color to work with when making a movie that involves a lot of CGI. Gunn's tweet was an answer to a fan's question about how hard it was to get Gamora's skin tone with regards to color and texture. "A total pain," Gunn said and joked that while blue gave him Avatar vibes, he almost went with it. Check out his tweet below:

Meanwhile, Drax the Destroyer, who is also green in the comic books, has grey skin in the movies. In the same Twitter thread, Gunn stated that there were just too many green characters in the MCU so he decided to change Drax's appearance. The director's call proved to be a great decision, because Dave Bautista looked fearsome as the brawny Guardian.

As for Gamora, it's hard to imagine the assassin-turned-superhero having a different skin color. It truly must've been an editing nightmare to make her appearance stand out with all the Chroma-key effects, so credit should be given to the production team. Their efforts were all worth it, because by retaining Gamora's unmistakable green skin tone, Marvel and Gunn certainly avoided backlash and funny Avatar memes. After all, Saldana also played the lead female character in the 2009 James Cameron movie, and the similarity would be just too uncanny. Gunn should be bracing himself for another round of torturous editing sessions as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 begins filming later this year.

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Source: James Gunn