Development Marvel Studios President
Kevin Feige first mentioned
Guardians of the Galaxy as a potential film at the 2010
San Diego Comic-Con, stating, "There are some obscure titles, too, like
Guardians of the Galaxy. I think they've been revamped recently in a fun way in the [comic] book." In August 2012,
James Gunn entered talks to direct the film, beating out other contenders, including future MCU directors
Peyton Reed and the duo
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
The Avengers director
Joss Whedon, who signed a deal to creatively consult on all of the films leading up to
The Avengers sequel (2015), was enthusiastic about the selection of Gunn to direct, saying "James [Gunn] is what makes me think it will work ... He is so off the wall, and so crazy, but so smart, such a craftsman and he builds from his heart. He loves the raccoon. Needs the raccoon ... He has a very twisted take on it, but it all comes from a real love for the material. It's going to be hard for [the human characters] to keep up".
Writing Nicole Perlman, who was enrolled in Marvel's screenwriting program in 2009, was offered several of their lesser known properties to base a screenplay on. Out of those, Perlman chose
Dan Abnett and
Andy Lanning's
Guardians of the Galaxy, due to her interest in space and
science fiction, adding, "I think [Marvel] were a little taken aback when I chose
Guardians, because there were ones that would make a lot more sense if you were a romantic-comedy writer or something like that". Perlman wrote 10 drafts between 2009 and 2011, in which she tried various combinations of characters for the team, including
the original members in the comics, before settling on Abnett and Lanning's run since theirs "were the most fun". Early drafts centered on
Nova, before
Nate Moore, the head of the studios' writing program, suggested it change to Star-Lord. Subsequent drafts saw Star-Lord reimagined to be closer to a
Han Solo-type character; the inclusion of 1980s and 1990s music from Perlman's childhood, which would become the 1970s and 1980s pop mixtape in Gunn's later drafts; and the eventual opening scene of the film on a desolate planet that harkened back to a memory Perlman had at
Disneyland viewing a drained-out
Submarine Voyage. Gunn was brought in in early 2012 to contribute to the script, eventually rewriting the script entirely because "it didn't work" for him; he would use the film
The Dirty Dozen (1967) as a reference to convey his ideas of the film to Marvel. Gunn later explained that Perlman's draft was very different from the script he used during filming, including a different story,
character arcs and no
Walkman; he stated, "In Nicole's script everything is pretty different ... it's not about the same stuff. But that's how the
WGA works." The 2012 screenplay also had
J'son as an emperor and
Peter Quill / Star-Lord's father just like in the comic books. When Marvel asked Joss Whedon to revise the script ahead of
Age of Ultron, Whedon particularly detested this reveal and suggested Marvel to not make Peter part of royalty; Whedon suggested Gunn to make the story "weirder" after reading the early draft. Throughout the writing process, there was some debate on whether keeping Rocket as a member of the Guardians or even featuring the character at all in the film due to concerns that he could come off as "too cartoonish", hence why a few drafts excluded the character, but Perlman felt that the character's inclusion was necessary and was happy at Feige letting her keep him in the script due to him being a great Rocket fan. In August 2012, Marvel Studios hired writer Chris McCoy to rewrite Perlman's script, but was not credited in the final film. Gunn revealed that character introductions were the "hardest scenes to crack", with
Thanos' introduction being the most difficult. He felt that "having Thanos be in that scene was more helpful to the [MCU] than it was to
Guardians of the Galaxy," yet he still wanted Thanos in the film, without "[belittling] the actual antagonist of the film, which is Ronan". To solve his dilemma, Gunn chose to have Ronan kill "The Other", Thanos'
vizier, saying, "I thought that was interesting, because we've had the Other, who's obviously very powerful even in comparison to
Loki, and then we see Ronan wipe his ass with him. So that I liked, but even that was sort of difficult, because it played as funnier when I first wrote it, and the humor didn't work so much". Perlman's original script had Thanos as the main villain of the film, but Whedon asked Gunn if he could not have Thanos as the main antagonist and Gunn agreed, reducing Thanos' role in the plot.
Pre-production In September 2012, Gunn confirmed that he had signed on to direct the film and rewrite the script. By the end of November,
Joel Edgerton,
Jack Huston,
Jim Sturgess, and
Eddie Redmayne signed deals to test for the role of Peter Quill, as did
Lee Pace, which he confirmed a week later in early December. Other actors who were considered for the role included
Thor: The Dark World (2013) actor
Zachary Levi,
Adam Brody,
Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
Michael Rosenbaum, and
John Gallagher Jr. Chris Pratt was cast in the role in February 2013, as part of a multi-film deal that he signed with Marvel.
Glenn Howerton was Gunn's second choice for the role. In January 2013, filming was scheduled to take place at
Shepperton Studios in London, United Kingdom, and Marvel Studios announced that the film would be released in
3D.
Victoria Alonso, an executive producer on the film, said that filming would begin in June. She also said that both Rocket Raccoon and Groot would be created through a combination of CGI and motion capture, going on to say that "You can't do any motion capture with a raccoon—they won't let you put the suit on. But we will do
rotomation, probably, for some of the behavior ... we definitely will have performers to emulate what James Gunn will lead to be, the behavior and the performance. He's very clear on where he wants to take the characters." In March 2013, Feige discussed
Guardians of the Galaxy in relation to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, saying, "It's much more of a
standalone film. It takes place in the same universe. And when we've been on the other side of that universe in other movies, you might see those characteristics in Guardians, but the Avengers are not involved with what's happening out there at this time." Feige also stated that 95% of the film would take place in space. In mid-March,
Dave Bautista was signed to play
Drax the Destroyer. Other actors who had been considered for the role included
Isaiah Mustafa,
Brian Patrick Wade,
Jason Momoa, and
Chadwick Boseman. Momoa chose not to continue after auditioning, feeling the character was too similar to other parts he had played in the past, and he did not want to further add to his typecasting as the "brute" character. By the following week, sculptor
Brian Muir, who sculpted
Darth Vader's mask for
Star Wars (1977), was revealed to be working on the film. In early April 2013,
Zoe Saldaña entered into negotiations to star as
Gamora in the film, and it was confirmed she had been cast later that month.
Amanda Seyfried had been offered the role, but declined due to the excessive hours of make-up required for the role, and her uncertainty over the film's commercial viability.
Lupita Nyong'o also auditioned for the role. Also in April,
Michael Rooker joined the film's cast as
Yondu Udonta, and it was announced that
Ophelia Lovibond had been cast in a supporting role. By this point in time,
Lee Pace was in final negotiations to play the villain of the film. In May, Marvel offered
John C. Reilly the role of
Rhomann Dey. At the same time, it was disclosed that filmmakers were looking at actors including
Hugh Laurie,
Alan Rickman, and
Ken Watanabe, for another role, and that
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were providing finishing touches to the script. A few days later,
Glenn Close was cast as the head of the
Nova Corps in the film, followed shortly by the casting of
Karen Gillan as the film's lead female villain. By June 2013,
Benicio del Toro was cast in the film, as part of a multi-film deal with Marvel Studios. Later in the month, it was confirmed that Reilly had been cast as Rhomann Dey. Special effects makeup designer David White took head and body casts of actors, such as Bautista, to experiment with materials used to create the characters. White said, "James always pushed for practical and makeup effects. He wanted, like me, to see the real deal there on set." White was careful not to use "modern" creature designs to ensure they did not fall short in Gunn's uniquely envisioned world. White and his team created upwards of 1,000 prosthetic makeup applications and 2,000 molds of different-colored aliens. For the specific aesthetic look to the film, Gunn wanted to create "a colorful science-fiction world", and include elements of 1950s and '60s pulp movies, citing the Ravagers' spaceships, which he compared to muscle cars, as an example of the latter. Science fiction artist
Chris Foss inspired and helped design the final look of some of the spacecrafts that appear in the film. The
Mass Effect video game series,
Flash Gordon,
Farscape and
Star Wars were primary inspirations for Gunn on the film.
Filming Principal photography began around July 6, 2013, in
London, United Kingdom, under the working title of
Full Tilt. Filming took place at Shepperton Studios and
Longcross Studios. Later in July, Gunn and the film's cast flew from London to attend San Diego Comic-Con, where it was revealed that Pace would play Ronan the Accuser, Gillan would be
Nebula, del Toro as
the Collector, and that
Djimon Hounsou had been cast as
Korath. Close was later revealed to play
Nova Prime Irani Rael. Also at San Diego Comic-Con, Feige stated that Thanos would be a part of the film as the "mastermind". On August 11, 2013, filming began at London's
Millennium Bridge, which was selected as a double for
Xandar. In August 2013, Marvel announced that
Bradley Cooper would voice Rocket. On September 3, 2013, Gunn said that filming was "a little over half[way]" complete. Also in September,
Vin Diesel stated that he was voicing Groot. However, Marvel did not confirm Diesel's involvement in the film at the time. On October 12, 2013, Gunn announced on social media that filming had completed.
Director of photography Ben Davis used
Arri Alexa XT cameras for the film, saying, "I'm traditionally a photochemical fan, but going with the digital format was the right way for this movie ... the Alexa [provided] the right look for this particular film". During the opening scenes in the 1980s, Davis chose JDC Cooke Xtal (Crystal) Express anamorphic prime lenses because they "had more anamorphic artifacts and aberrations, which [he] felt added something". Davis used spherical
Panavision Primos for the rest of the film. Additionally, Davis worked closely with production designer Charles Wood to achieve the correct lighting looks for each scene. Dealing with two fully CGI characters forced Davis to shoot scenes multiple times, usually once with the references for the characters and once without them in the shot. Gunn revealed that his brother,
Sean Gunn, took on multiple roles during the filming process, such as standing in for Rocket, which he noted was beneficial for the other actors, including Saldaña, Pratt, and Bautista, who responded positively to Sean and his on-set performances. Sean was first hired to play Kraglin Obfonteri, but James hired him as a stand-in on set for Rocket because he knew he could trust in him until they could figure out how to portray Rocket, though they knew Sean would not voice the character, with Cooper being cast to voice Rocket very late in development. Special effects makeup designer David White made two life-size versions of Rocket and a bust of Groot as aids for visual effects, with White saying, "it gives [the filmmakers] a good indication of where visual effects needs to pick up and whether Rocket can actually reach certain things or use certain devices". These busts were also used to see how the on-set lighting would affect the characters, to assist with the visual effects lighting process. In January 2015, Disney revealed that the film came in "slightly over the agreed budget" at $232.3 million, with Disney receiving a rebate of $36.4 million from the British government. It was previously estimated to have had a $170 million budget.
Post-production In November 2013, Gunn stated that he attempted to use as many practical effects as possible while filming to aid the use of CGI and motion capture during post-production, saying, "Our sets are enormous. We have a prison that is 350,000 pounds of steel. Anybody who knows me knows I love the mix of practical and CGI effects ... I can't wait for people to see it, because it's astonishingly beautiful." After the release of
Thor: The Dark World, Feige stated that the
Infinity Stones would be a focus in the film, as well as going forward into the Phase Three slate of films within the MCU. Gunn originally wrote the scene of the Collector explaining about the origins of the Infinity Stones in one hour and a half, only to then be told by Marvel Studios that they were incidentally thinking about including the Power Stone in his film, an idea that Gunn found cool to use, thus subsequent MCU filmmakers involved in the
long-planned story of
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) based themselves on Gunn's backstory for the Stones. In a separate interview for
The Dark World in November, Feige added that a third, unknown Infinity Stone would be seen in the film, referred to as the "Power Stone" by the Collector. The
mid-credits scene in
The Dark World revealed Lovibond's role as the Collector's slave, later named Carina. In December 2013, Marvel confirmed that Diesel would voice Groot. A few weeks of additional filming, involving the film's main cast and crew, occurred in March 2014 at
Walt Disney Studios in
Burbank, California. In April 2014, Gunn described Thanos as the "head of the snake" in the film, and confirmed he would appear via performance capture. In May 2014, Gunn stated that the film features an "enormous" amount of smaller and minor characters from the Marvel Universe, adding that he felt the film had the most characters overall of any Marvel Studios film to date. Costume supervisor Dan Grace added to this by saying, "We really, really get the feeling of the scale and scope of the galaxy. We visit five planets, we see a hundred different races." The film introduces the alien race
Sakaaran, who act as Ronan's mercenaries, as a replacement to the
Badoon, as the Badoon film rights belonged to
20th Century Fox. By the end of May,
Josh Brolin was revealed as the voice of Thanos, with Feige confirming in July that Brolin also provided the performance capture for the character. Whedon assisted Gunn as well in casting Brolin. Brolin was filming
Everest (2015) when Marvel Studios approached him to play Thanos with information about the character, explaining to him that his role in
Guardians would consist of a
cameo appearance, with larger roles planned for later installments. Feige explained that Brolin was "totally intrigued" when approached for the role, having been a fan of Marvel Studios' past films. Thanos communicates via hologram for much of the film, though he does appear in a scene with Ronan and Nebula. In June 2014, Feige added that Thanos and his followers are "the biggest piece of connective tissue that will eventually lead us back into
Avengers films in the future". On July 7, 2014, Gunn announced on social media that he had completed work on the film. In August, regarding the post-credit scene, Gunn revealed that the scene did not involve
Howard the Duck when it was originally filmed, rather he was added during post-production, a decision made by "some combination of [Gunn] and the editor Fred Raskin". As the decision to add the character was made late in the post-production process, he had to be designed that day, before being handed off to Sony Pictures Imageworks to animate. Also in August, regarding the pre-credit scene of Baby Groot dancing, Gunn stated that he himself danced to provide motion reference for the animators, and that the decision was made to place the scene before the credits, rather than during or after them, because of positive responses from a test audience, which made Marvel and Gunn feel that they did not want "people walking out and missing this thing". Another late change halfway in production came when Marvel decided that the Reality Stone would be red in
The Dark World. Because the Power Stone was originally meant to be red as well, Gunn was asked to change its color from red to purple, which he accepted as, by his own admission, liked that color more. Marvel used design firm Sarofsky once again for the film's title sequences, after liking their work for
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Sarofsky developed a custom
typeface based on the font used in the teaser posters for the opening credits, which was tinted orange to offer a better contrast to the film's blue and gray imagery. One of the typography solutions offered before the final product wound up being repurposed as the locator cards seen throughout the film.
Visual effects The film featured 2,750 visual effects shots, which make up approximately 90% of the film. The visual effects were created by:
Moving Picture Company (MPC), who worked on creating Groot, as well as
Morag,
Xandar, the
Dark Aster and the final battle on Xandar;
Framestore, who worked on creating Rocket, extending the Kyln prison set and constructing Knowhere;
Luma Pictures, who worked on Thanos;
Method Studios, who worked on creating the Orb opening and revealing its powers, as well as the holographic displays at the Nova Corps command center; Lola VFX;
Cantina Creative;
Sony Pictures Imageworks, who worked on Howard the Duck and creating the
Dark Aster shots with MPC; CoSA VFX; Secret Lab; Rise Visual Effects Studios; and Technicolor VFX. Pre- and post-visualizations were done by Proof and The Third Floor, with Proof also contributing to the creation of Rocket and Groot. Producer Nik Korda noted how helpful it was to have Sean Gunn and Krystian Godlewski portray Rocket and Groot on set, as it provided references for lighting and on-set performances to the animators. When creating Groot, MPC realized early on that his eyes would be essential in maintaining the character's human qualities, as his face couldn't move in the way that humans' do. MPC visual effects supervisor Nicolas Aithadi explained that, "When you look at humans what makes the eyes interesting is the imperfections—trying to make these two irises not aimed at the same place—trying to make them strange and look more human." Textures for Groot came from a number of sources, including inspiration from a botanical garden in London, and the character was modeled as individual branches, rigged individually, to simulate a muscle system for the character. One of the major challenges for Framestore in creating Rocket was his fur. Framestore's Rachel Williams explained that, since "raccoon fur is made up from a layer of short fine hair and a layer of longer thicker hairs", these layers were separated and animated individually, removing the need to use "guide hairs" to control the movements of thick sections of fur. Framestore and MPC worked closely sharing assets, to ensure shots of Rocket at MPC would match the Rocket created by Framestore, and vice versa for when Groot was needed by the other studio. To give Thanos "the performance and the weight that he deserved", Luma Pictures created a new facial animation system to re-create Josh Brolin as a fully CG character, using his "eyes, some of his cheek, how his muscles move when he talks". The character's large jaw, and the deep grooves that run down his face, had "to be carefully planned out with the movement of his face". ==Music==