James Gunn said ‘NO' to Marvel's biggest hero: ‘I will never let him in Guardians 3'; promises a different post-credit scene in Superman

Indian Express

a day ago

A Marvel movie without a post-credit scene almost feels like it's missing one of its main heroes. Ever since 2008's Iron Man, where Nick Fury's surprise interaction with Tony Stark laid the groundwork for the upcoming phase of the MCU, these scenes have become a franchise trademark. But James Gunn recently opened up on how these tags can sometimes backfire. In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, he revealed how he pushed back against Marvel's plan to including Thor into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
After Avengers: Endgame wrapped up, fans saw Thor join the Guardians in the movie's post-credit scene, teasing that the character would be part of the superhero team moving forward. But Gunn was not on board with that idea at all. 'I said in the script notes: I'm not gonna put him in. I don't want to have Thor in the Guardians. I don't want to do a movie with Thor.' The Marvel director revealed that while he loves Chris Hemsworth as a person and enjoys watching him on-screen, he simply didn't feel comfortable writing Thor on paper. 'I don't understand the character that much. I don't understand how to write that character.' According to Gunn, the problem became crucial because of the push to link everything in the MCU, which led to the 'Thor-Guardians team-up in Endgame' without really consulting him. 'The way a post-credits scene works is a punch to the face, like, 'Oh my God! Look at this.' But at times, when you're using it just to set something up, you're screwing yourself over.' Gunn admitted that when he saw that scene in Endgame, his reaction was: 'What the f— am I gonna do?'
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At that point, Marvel boss Kevin Feige reassured him that Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi would handle Hemsworth's storyline. That gave Gunn freedom to keep him completely out of Guardians 3. Gunn even joked that Taika 'took a bullet' for him. But Thor wasn't Gunn's only headache. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, he added a post-credit scene teasing Adam Warlock's arrival. 'I did not like what I did in 'Guardians 2' where we set up Adam Warlock and we set up the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and we set up all this shit that I didn't necessarily plan on,' Gunn said. He admitted it was not easy to work with the character in part 3.
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Now that Gunn is running DC Studios and directing Superman, he is handling the post-credits game according to his own rules. He confirmed that Superman will have a post-credit scene, but it won't be forced to tell a future storyline. 'I do love giving something back to the audience, so I will try to put something in the end credits… but I got to be a little bit careful about it.' The only time Gunn was happy to use a post-credit scene was one to introduce the Peacemaker series after The Suicide Squad. 'I started shooting the Peacemaker show, and then I shot [the post-credits scene] and then put it in there, so it was easy,' he said. Superman stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
The film is set to hit theatres on July 11, 2025.