We will be exploring the more cosmic side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe next year when James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy hits the big screen, and recently Crave Online caught up with the director to find what to expect from the movie. The major take away is something fans of the Marvel movies (me included) have been asking since he turned up in the end credits sequence of The Avengers: what is Thanos' role in Guardians of the Galaxy and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general? Gunn doesn't let much slip, but he does reveal that he is the power behind the big bad of the movie, Ronan (Lee Pace), meaning Thanos will play a small, but important, role, more of a shadowing threat to Chris Pratt's Star Lord and his team of intergalactic ex-cons. I had a feeling this might be the case, because Marvel are hinting towards a future adaption of The Infinity Gauntlet, a storyline which Thanos plays a major part, having gotten the power to remake reality. The (spoilers) end credits sequence of Thor: The Dark World, which Gunn directed, does point to this, with The Tesseract, which caused all sorts of trouble in Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers, being referred to as an Infinity Stone, one of six Thanos gathered in the comic to bestow on himself god-like power. Marvel Studio's are strangers to playing the long game, so I really do think they will deliver a pay off this storyline in the future.
Getting back to Guardians of the Galaxy, Gunn goes on to explain the look of the movie, promising "tons and tons of practical effects", with the mixture of practical and CG effects he is known for (having had the pleasure to see some rough, behind the scenes footage from the movie, I'll just say it looks amazing). He also went on the reveal that a prison set, that is "350,000 pounds of steel" had been constructed, as well as other enormous sets. Guardians of the Galaxy has always being seen as Marvel Studio's biggest gamble, mainly because it is based on a property that isn't well known in the main stream, but everything revealed about the project so far points to something that will keep up the quality and fun of the Marvel films that have come before it.
