- What Could Have Been: In an interview
, writer Al Ewing mentioned that the book was originally headed in a "darker" direction, but he changed his plans over the course of 2020:
"...mostly, it was where the story wanted to go. Originally, this was all heading to a darker place, but - possibly because the world's endured enough darkness recently - once I was in the thick of it, I ended up tacking towards something brighter and more positive, and that led to the idea of the Guardians as a superhero team in a more official capacity."
