10 new details from James Gunn’s Guardians Vol.3 commentary track

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 was released on digital and Blu-ray earlier this month, and included amongst the bonus features was a full-length commentary track from writer/director James Gunn. A common component of a movie’s physical media home release, the director’s commentary is a fun opportunity for fans to gain insight into their favorite films, and for the creators to reflect on the projects they likely spent years of their lives crafting. Gunn’s commentary track for his Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) swan song is no different, so read on to learn about some of our favorite new details from Gunn about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3.

1. This was new for him.

One of the earliest details Gunn discloses on the commentary track is that this was his first time doing a commentary before the movie had been released. At the time of recording, Gunn had no idea how positively his final Marvel film would go on to be received.

2. It was easy to edit.

He acknowledged that Guardians Vol.3 was the easiest film he’d ever edited, but then added that maybe this was because he’d already spent an entire year writing the script.

3. He got engaged during the shooting of the movie.

Gunn’s wife, Jennifer Holland, has a small role in the film as an OrgoCorp employee, and during her first onscreen appearance, Gunn confessed that while he doesn’t procrastinate in his professional life, he is guilty of doing so in his personal life. He then launched into an amusing tangent about the time Chris Pratt told him that he was planning to propose to his now-wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, and Gunn said he was thinking of doing the same with Holland…and then five years passed. In that time, Pratt proposed, got married, and had two kids, and Gunn still hadn’t proposed to Holland, so it was Pratt “giving him crap” that finally spurred him on to get engaged in February of 2022, while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 was in the midst of production.

4. Blurp was going to be a cat.

The adorable Ravager pet that Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock adopts out of guilt after incinerating its owner was originally intended to be a feline friend. Gunn ultimately opted to change the creature to a furry F’saki (look it up!) because he felt a cat would be too repetitive, given that Captain Marvel’s pet Flerken, Goose (an alien species resembling a domestic cat) will be making her triumphant reappearance in The Marvels, which is set for release in November of this year.

5. Very little was left on the cutting room floor.

In keeping with his earlier comment about the ease of the editing process, Gunn noted that he and his editors only ended up cutting maybe half an hour of footage from the movie, and with that, rarely entire scenes.

6. The movie set a new World Record.

Thanks to his collaboration with Legacy Effects, Gunn’s film beat the World Record for the most makeup appliances created for a single production, previously held by Jim Carrey’s 2000 classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

7. He couldn’t wait to see the final fight scene with an audience.

The affectionately dubbed “hallway fight,” in which every Guardian gets a stand-out moment in an epic group fight sequence that’s shot to look like one continuous take (although it wasn’t a one-shot, as Gunn pointed out in his commentary), and scored by The Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” was cited by Gunn as the sequence he was most looking forward to finally getting to experience with an audience at the world premiere.

8. The last group shot filmed wasn’t the final team meeting.

The last time all the Guardians filmed together was the scene of them running down the hallway after having bested the group of Hell Spawn in the aforementioned “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” fight, not the extremely emotional goodbye they share towards the end of the movie as the team prepares to part ways.

9. Even Michelangelo got some Easter eggs.

Gunn is known for his Easter eggs, and some fans may have already picked up on his direct visual nod to the Italian artist’s most famous work, “The Creation of Adam,” during the moment where Adam rescues Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill from being stranded in space, but there’s a second homage to the work of Michelangelo in the film. In her first scene in the movie, Elizabeth Debicki’s High Priestess Ayesha appears before Chukwudi Iwuji’s High Evolutionary with her wounded son, the aforementioned Adam, draped across her lap in a pose reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Vatican City sculpture “La Madonna della Pietà.”

10. Fans weren’t the only ones crying.

As the credits rolled, Gunn revealed that he’d gotten emotional three separate times while recording this commentary track, and then challenged fans listening to see if they could detect at which moments he’d teared up.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 can be purchased on digital or Blu-ray and is also available for streaming on Disney+.