James Gunn did NOT WANT Chris Pratt in Guardians of the Galaxy initially

James Gunn did not want to audition Chris Pratt for Guardians of the Galaxy and Pratt did not want to read for the role of Peter Quill.

The first Guardians of the Galaxy movie in the franchise was released in 2014 and starred Pratt as Quill, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as Groot and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, with the latter two actors performing voice roles.

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It was a surprise hit for Marvel as the general movie audience had not heard of most of the characters before.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 was released in 2017, while the final entry in the trilogy, Vol.3, hit cinemas in 2023.

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Pratt has played Starlord not just in Gunn's movies but in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. But, things could have been very different if not for the persuasion skills of casting director Sarah Finn.

"This is one of the crazier casting stories," she told Variety at a viewing of Vol.3

"James Gunn has been very gracious in acknowledging how much I annoyed him. Chris wasn't an obvious idea in the beginning. He didn't want to audition and James didn't want to see him, yet here we are.

"James thinks I tricked him. I disagree - I think it was very fortuitous timing.

"Chris was walking into my office when James was walking out. We were all there together and I said 'hey, let's just do this'. And, within about 20 seconds of Chris reading the lines, James turned to me and said 'he's the guy'.

"We had been auditioning for this part for months. The character is very specific."

Who is the hero of Guardians of the Galaxy?

Even though Quill is the de facto leader of the group, with Vol.2, in particular, focusing on his family, Gunn actually reckons Rocket is the true protagonist of the trilogy.

“I would say Peter's kind of a mess. I think he's suffering from major detachment issues," the director told Empire.

"For me, Rocket was always the secret protagonist of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. You've never seen Rocket in any movie not do something altruistic. He's never done anything other than for his friends. He's not a hero in the typical sense of the word. Telling his story was really important to me."