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Trivia / Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

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General Trivia

  • According to James Gunn, the film broke the world record for most make-up appliances used in one production, with over 22,500 prosthetics were created for the movie. The previous record holder was 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
  • Gunn noted in an interview with Rolling Stone that despite Thor joining the Guardians at the end of Endgame, he had not written the story with Thor's involvement in any form. Were it not for Thor: Love and Thunder, his absence would never have been explained.
  • This is the first MCU film to have an uncensored F-bomb.note 
  • PETA declared the film as the "the best animal rights film of the year", giving James Gunn a reward for his depiction of the cruelties surrounding animal testing.
  • This was Disney's last film to be released on physical home media in Australia and New Zealand, marking the End of an Age for Disney's distribution of physical home media there.

Trivia Tropes

  • Acting for Two: Like before, Sean Gunn helps portray Rocket Raccoon and also plays Kraglin Obfonteri. What finally makes this a proper example of this trope is that Gunn also voices Rocket as a child, while still doing the mocap for him.
  • Actor-Inspired Element:
    • Drax no longer going shirtless in this film (and to a lesser extent, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special) was a creative choice made by Dave Bautista, as he felt that he was getting too old to do it, on top of how difficult it was to maintain a good physique to justify it at this point in his career.
    • Gunn stated that Chukwudi Iwuji introduced him to "Dido's Lament", which Iwuji was listening to for inspiration, with the song subsequently being incorporated into the film as the High Evolutionary's leitmotif.
  • Approval of God:
  • Auteur License: James Gunn received carte blanche for this film prior to his firing. After it became clear that no one would accept a Gunn-less conclusion to the Guardians' story, Gunn was brought back and allowed to fulfill his vision for the franchise. Gunn has since confirmed that he retains his position over the final cut of the film, and he personally oversaw the development of 600 different versions of the film for various formats to ensure that each theater or other viewing measure gets has best possible experience.
  • Cast the Runner-Up: Benjamin Byron Davis had previously been considered to play Drax the Destroyer during the first Guardians movie. Here he plays an Orgocorp guard named Bletelsnort, who Mantis manipulates to fall in love with Drax while they infiltrate the place.
  • Creator Backlash:
    • Not for anything in the movie itself, but Karen Gillan regrets doing a rather awkward pose for theatrical poster of the movie.
    • Zoe Saldaña expressed disappointment that the alternate Gamora didn't get together with Peter Quill in the end, but she understood why it worked out as it did.
  • Creator Cameo: James Gunn provides the voice for Lambshank.
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: Gunn voices Lambshank, who is revealed here to be female.
  • I Am Not Spock: Even though Chukwudi Iwuji is still rightfully proud of his chilling performance as the High Evolutionary, he has stated in interviews that he (like director James Gunn) is an animal lover in real life, and noted he could not have stomached performing the scenes of the madman abusing animals if motion-capture actors didn't take their place. He even sadly chuckled that when he saw the dailies of Rocket Raccoon's Puppy-Dog Eyes performance superimposed on Sean Gunn's for the first time: I saw Cicero's (my dog's) eyes looking right back at me, and thought "That's it; I'm going straight to hell." With that said, many people who saw the film were disturbed with how well he portrayed an unhinged, abusive monster towards animals. Even his agent reportedly went home and hugged her dog, flat-out telling him two days later that she "didn't know how to talk to [him] anymore" after seeing his performance during the world premiere.
  • Irony as She Is Cast: The High Evolutionary, who's basically Bad People Abuse Animals incarnate, is played by Chukwudi Iwuji, who's a dog owner.
  • I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: Molly Quinn (one of Stakar's Ravagers) actually shared plenty of screen time with Will Poulter (Adam Warlock) in We're the Millers. She also shared plenty of screen time with Nathan Fillion (Karja) in Castle (she played his character's daughter).
  • Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's released Happy Meal toys of the movie. The characters can rock side to side on their bases and move certain parts of their bodies.
  • Milestone Celebration:
    • Vol. 3 was released the same week as the 15th anniversary of Iron Man and the MCU. It was also released a week before the 15th anniversary of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's post-Annihilation: Conquest relaunch of the team (and with it the creative foundation the MCU has used).
    • 2023 is also the 50th anniversary of Redbone's recording of "Come and Get Your Love". So, its return to Guardians in the mid-credits sequence — let alone to the franchise that introduced the once-forgotten song to contemporary audiences — in a sense is a 50th anniversary celebration.
  • Missing Trailer Scene:
    • One of the trailers depicts the High Evolutionary furiously floating forward in a Levitating Lotus Position. This is nowhere to be seen in the final film.
    • While there is a scene of Nebula spreading her arms and crying out for joy is in the movie, it's much more zoomed out and out of focus than the scene shown in the trailers.
  • Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: As with previous films, Pom Klementieff dubbed herself in French.
  • The Other Darrin: Mainframe was previously voiced by Miley Cyrus in one of the Stingers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Tara Strong steps up to replace her in this film.
  • Production Posse:
  • Real-Life Relative:
    • Sean Gunn once again does the motion-capture for Rocket (and even voices him in some of the flashback scenes), and also plays Kraglin Obfonteri.
    • James Gunn's wife Jennifer Holland briefly appears as an employee at Orgocorp.
  • Release Date Change: The film was initially set to be the first one for Phase 4, but it was delayed repeatedly due to James Gunn's firing and eventual rehiring, several pushbacks due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, and additional delays due to shifts in the MCU's release schedule. It is instead the second film of Phase 5 as a result of all of that.
  • Reality Subtext: The Big Bad of this movie is a Corrupt Corporate Executive who mistreats his creations, throws them away when they're no longer useful to him, and wants Rocket alive because he was so helpful to him and all of his other underlings couldn't give him good ideas. While this movie was written before Gunn was fired by Disney, and left mostly unchanged after he returned to finish the trilogy, many people have noted how eerily the story reflects what happened in the interim.
  • Role Reprise:
    • Six years after they first appeared in the second volume, both Elizabeth Debicki and Sylvester Stallone return to the MCU. Debicki reprises her role as Ayesha, the high priestess of the Sovereign, while Stallone reprises his role of Stakar Ogord, the leader of the Ravagers.
    • Christopher Fairbank returns as the Broker eight years after his last appearance in the first movie.
  • Sequel Gap: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was released back in 2017, while Vol. 3 released a whopping six years later. The delays are mainly from James Gunn's temporary firing, and Gunn's commitments to his DC Film and TV projects. Although this is mitigated by the fact that the Guardians have appeared in six other projects during that gap (Avengers: Infinity War; Avengers: Endgame (the former two are considered Guardians movies as much as they are Avengers movies), I Am Groot, Thor: Love and Thunder, What If…?, and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special).
  • Sleeper Hit: The film came out during a period of time where everyone started noticing "superhero fatigue" among audiences, attributed to the box office failures of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods, so hope for this movie's performance began to die down after a dissapointing domestic opening weekend. However, strong word-of-mouth led to the film having a drop of only 48% in its second weekend, the best second-weekend hold for any MCU film. The film eventually had an incredibly successful run and becoming the fourth-highest grossing film of 2023. It also became, by industry analysts, the only film of 2023 with a budget of over $200 million to break-even during its theatrical run.
  • Teasing Creator: James Gunn claimed during the build-up for this movie that some of the Guardians wouldn't be appearing past this movie. This led some fans to assume that characters would die in the movie. However, all of the group's members survive, though the group itself is disbanded in its current form — with two actors claiming that they have no plans to return to Marvel after this.
  • Throw It In!:
    • The part where Quill tells Nebula he never noticed how black her eyes were was improv by Chris Pratt. James Gunn then came with her answer, "They were replaced by my father as a method of torture." To which Chris Pratt improvised, "He... he picked... a pretty set."
    • Star-Lord's F-bomb to Nebula was not in the original script. Instead, James Gunn told Chris Pratt to say the word on set. The take was considered funny enough to be kept in the film.
  • Troubled Production: This movie is second only to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in the MCU in terms of how much behind-the-scenes drama plagued this film's creation. Initially, the film was supposed to begin production in early 2019, with a set 2020 release date—specifically, the film that would kick off Phase Four of the MCU (and the Multiverse Saga in general). However, in July 2018, inappropriate tweets by director James Gunn were unearthed. In spite of publicly apologizing, Gunn was essentially fired on the spot, with rumors circulating that it was the decision of one executive who didn't consult anybody about it. This led to Disney scrambling to find a director who would take the reins, all as backlash against the decision mounted against the decision to fire Gunn in the first place from both fans and cast members alike. When it became clear that nobody was willing to step into the director's chair on Gunn's behalf, Disney soon changed their mind and rehired him eight months later, thanks to the massive support he gained from the cast and crew of the Guardians films and his fans. However, in the interim, Gunn was signed on to direct The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker for DC Films — so Guardians Vol. 3's release was pushed back three whole years to 2023 as Gunn worked on his other projects. Even after being rehired, Gunn would later admit that filming the third installment was not his favorite experience, due to "a billion reasons, beginning with its size and complexity".
  • Underage Casting: Ayesha is Adam's mother. Elizabeth Debicki is only three years older than Will Poulter. It should be noted though that the Sovereign don't procreate the traditional way, but rather are grown in incubators and come out as adults.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Regé-Jean Page and George Mackay were considered for the part of Adam Warlock before Will Poulter was cast.
    • James Gunn almost didn't come back to direct this film after being fired by Disney over old controversial tweets that had resurfaced online. He was eventually reinstated due to public outcry at the decision, and because Marvel was unable to find a director willing to take over the franchise. The firing also had the side effect of various directors being considered as possible replacements for Gunn before his rehiring:
    • Miley Cyrus was set to reprise her voice role as Mainframe from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but was ultimately unable to take on the part again and was replaced by Tara Strong.
    • The film was intended to be released around 2020, with filming set to take place in 2019, but when James Gunn was controversially fired from the project, and no other director would take the job in his place, the film had to be pushed back when Gunn, though rehired, was brought on by Warner Bros. to direct The Suicide Squad. Its final release date was eventually revealed to be May 5, 2023. note  Additionally, had the film opened when intended, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 would've been the first film of the Multiverse Saga.
    • James Gunn had apparently written a very small role for Kumail Nanjiani in this movie, which by his own admission was mostly created so that he could hang out with him on the set. It eventually was sent to the cutting floor after Kevin Feige informed Gunn that Marvel had cast Nanjiani as Kingo in Eternals, which Gunn was more than glad to do.
    • Rocket's origin was originally part of a series of short films conceived to help introduce the Guardians to general audiences. When those were deemed unnecessary, Gunn put the story in his back pocket until needed.
    • Dave Bautista had once said after Gunn's firing that he was willing to break his contract and leave the film outright if they didn't at least use Gunn's script, knowing how hard he worked on it. While they ultimately used the script and hired Gunn back, had they chosen to write a new script, they would've been prevented from properly concluding Drax's story as a result of Bautista's absence.
    • According to an interview with Seth Green (who voices Howard the Duck), he had heard that the third film was going to explore the story of Gamora and Nebula. Given that the interview was in 2021 however, it's unclear if Green was mistaken, intentionally lying to cover up Rocket as the real focus, or if some earlier version of the script put more focus on the sisters.
    • Gunn revealed that Annihilus was nearly picked as Rocket's inventor and as the film's Big Bad.
    • During a press interview for Thor: Love and Thunder, Chris Pratt mentioned that the screaming goats Thor adopted were going to show up in this film as well, as part of some Trolling Creator shenanigans on Taika Waititi's part. Said goats never appear or are alluded to, so it's unknown if Pratt was misinformed or if Gunn simply chose not to use them.
    • Latti, one of the Star Children, was originally going to be named Genis, according to her child actress Sarah Anne.
    • James Gunn had wanted to use the song "Russian Roulette" (by The Lords of the New Church) in the film's soundtrack. However, due to ongoing legal battles over the song, it could not be included. This marked the only time in the trilogy that Gunn was denied a song.
    • James Gunn previously mentioned in 2018 that he was planning to offer a role in the film to Mark Hamill. As Hamill doesn't appear at all in the film and nothing about that possible cameo was brought up ever again, it's likely that Hamill was ultimately not approached to appear for unknown reasons.
    • Groot I and Yondu Udonta were planned to appear in Rocket's afterlife sequence at one point, but Gunn eventually decided against it as he worried that including them would be too confusing for viewers who hadn't seen the original movies since their previous release date. Yondu does appear in a hallucination of Kraglin's midway through the film, but Groot I never shows up in any form in the final film.
    • Kraglin's quip regarding "Kragula" was originally an Overly Long Gag where he explains to Nebula that the term was their "couple name", and later asks Nebula if they would like to be engaged, complete with a Call-Back to his frequency on getting married to alien women as depicted in Thor: Love and Thunder.
    • At one point, Gunn had considered not having Gamora appear at all in this film, with Quill's mourning and letting go of her being handled in a different way.
    • Blurp was originally going to be a cat in an earlier draft of the script, but he was later changed to be an alien creature due to James Gunn wanting to avoid comparisons to Goose from Captain Marvel.
    • Back in 2017, James Gunn teased that this film would set up "the next 10 to 20 years of Marvel movies, and expand the cosmic universe", coinciding with Gunn's role as a supervisor and consultant for the cosmic side of the MCU. After Gunn's firing and subsequent re-hiring from Marvel however, he instead focused on ending the Guardians' story over everything else, as his new commitments to DC resulted in him leaving Marvel for good after this film was released. The film does showcase the creation of a new generation of Guardians in the first Stinger, but no other cosmic elements of the franchise are set up in this film.
    • Lambshank, the deformed creature Mantis is frightened at while rescuing, was planned to be voiced by Stan Lee, to allow him to have his usual Creator Cameo in the Marvel franchise without having to physically travel to do it. Unfortunately, Lee would pass away long before production on this film started, leaving James Gunn to voice Lambshank himself.
    • James Gunn originally wanted to cast a big name actor in the role of the High Evolutionary. However, that changed after he met Chukwudi Iwuji during the production of Peacemaker, as Gunn was so impressed by Iwuji's performance in Peacemaker that he decided to cast him as The High Evolutionary.
  • Word of Saint Paul: Latti, one of the Star Children, the High Evolutionary's latest project, is a fish-like alien, according to this video from her actress and actress's sister's channel.
  • Word of God:
    • James Gunn confirmed the theory presented by an article that Groot speaking English at the end of the film was a Translation Convention, as we, the audience, have grown so close to these characters that we can understand Groot.
    • While Gunn himself never considered pairing Quill and Nebula romantically, he mentioned that Karen Gillan believes Nebula to have "a little bit of a crush on Quill that she doesn't quite know how to put together."
    • Gunn stated that Eagly had an appearance as one of the animals in the High Evolutionary's captivity to be experimented on.
    • Gunn confirmed that the High Evolutionary didn't die, but is imprisoned on Knowhere.
  • Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The original version of Vol. 3 got changed significantly after the events of Infinity War and Endgame impacted the characters and team roster, which James Gunn didn't have a lot of input on, and small delays became big delays due to briefly being removed from the MCU and the Covid-19 pandemic. He did express gratitude to Taika Waititi for pulling Thor out of the group for Thor: Love and Thunder, otherwise he would have had to do it in this film.
  • You Look Familiar:
    • Linda Cardellini does the voice and motion-capture for Lylla in this film, after having previously played Laura Barton in previous MCU installments.
    • Similarly, Judy Greer, who portrayed Maggie Lang in the Ant-Man movies, appears in this film as War Pig, one of the High Evolutionary's henchmen.
    • Mikaela Hoover does the voice and motion-capture for Floor after playing Nova Prime's assistant in the first Guardians movie.
    • Tara Strong takes over voicing Mainframe in this film, after previously portraying Miss Minutes in Loki.
    • Nathan Fillion previously voiced an alien prisoner in the first Guardians film. He finally appears in the flesh here as Master Karjanote .
    • Miriam Shor previously portrayed Alisa Jones in flashbacks in the first season of Jessica Jones. Here, she portrays Vim, one of the High Evolutionary's Recorders.
    • Benjamin Byron Davis previously appeared as Agent Burleigh in Ant-Man and the Wasp before playing Bletelsnort (the Orgocorp guard that Mantis charms to fall in love with Drax) here.
    • Austin Freeman does the motion-capture for Groot in this film, after previously portraying Randy in Loki.
    • Dee Bradley Baker does the voices and sounds for Blurp in this movie, after previously doing so for Morris in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
    • Randall P. Havens previously appeared as a driving instructor in the first episode of Ms. Marvel (2022) and plays Till (an inhabitant of Counter-Earth) in this film.

Awesome Mix Vol. 3

Awesome Mix Vol. 3 consists of the tracks:

Other songs considered for Awesome Mix Vol. 3 that were considered, but not used

  • "Russian Roulette" by The Lords of the New Church
  • "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd

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