Star-Lord was supposed to have some Star Wars toys in an early draft of Guardians Of The Galaxy - until director James Gunn decided to remove them. The original Guardians Of The Galaxy was seen as something of a gamble for Marvel back in 2014; it presented a whole new cosmic angle to the MCU, and the source material was relatively obscure to mainstream audiences.

The risk paid off, however, with the film becoming one of Marvel’s best-reviewed efforts to date, and grossing over $700 million worldwide.While Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 was an even bigger hit, the response wasn’t quite as warm, with the story being criticized for feeling aimless around the midway point. Still, fans love the characters and universe of the Guardians movies, and they’re finally due to meet the rest of the MCU in Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled sequel.

Related: How Thor Meets The Guardians In Infinity War

Peter Quill’s nostalgia for Earth and his childhood plays an important role in the original Guardians Of The Galaxy, and according to James Gunn during a recent Facebook Q&A, in one draft of the script, Peter was supposed to have Star Wars figures on his ship. These old toys used to play a part in the story until Gunn wrote them out of the final version.

In the screenplay that was written by Nicole Perlman before I came on to Guardians, Kevin [Feige, Marvel Studios President] had asked that Star-Lord have these Star Wars figures that he loved. And so these Star Wars figures were in the movie and played a big part in it. But I thought that didn't work for me, so I took them out.

The Star Wars series was a huge influence on both Gunn and the Guardians Of The Galaxy movies, but it was probably the right call to take them out. There can be a fine line between a respectful nod and pandering nostalgia, so it likely would have been distracting to see Chris Pratt playing with a Luke Skywalker or Boba Fett doll, even in service of character development.

During his Facebook chat, Gunn also confirmed he’s hard at work developing Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 and the new mixtape will contain 13 songs. Speaking of Star Wars, in a case of interesting timing, there might be a small chance Mark Hamill could board the next movie. After a fan reached out to Gunn on Twitter about the idea of Hamill signing up, the two exchanged friendly words about the idea. Of course, a pleasant Twitter interaction is far from a confirmation, and the movie is so far down the pipe there may not even be a suitable role for the veteran actor.

That said, it’s unlikely fans of either Guardians Of The Galaxy or Star Wars would be especially upset if Hamill made even a small cameo.

More: James Gunn Shares Some of His Original Guardians of the Galaxy Pitch

Source: James Gunn

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