James Gunn Breaks Down How Improv Played A Big Part In Guardians of The Galaxy Vol.3 Key Scenes

James Gunn and his Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 cast have worked together long enough to know how to get the best out of each other on set. For their final Marvel movie together, there was not only a need to get the story right, but to also bring something more than the script alone offered. This meant that there was plenty of room for improvisation, and while speaking to Screen Rant, Gunn explained how his approach to filmmaking has always included a certain amount of bouncing ideas around with the cast. He said:

“On the first movie, there’s a scene where Chris talks about Kevin Bacon and Chris and I found this gift that we have. So we kind of one-up one another and make a scene better. And so we were talking about whatever and I think I brought up “The Great Legend of Footloose,” and you brought up “And The Great Hero Kevin Bacon.” And then and then it became the sticks up their butts after that. Now, we didn’t do that on set. We did that in my office in Shepperton, UK. But when you look at this movie, we did a similar thing when he looks over at Nebula and kind of is eyeing her like maybe he’s starting to feel feelings for her. And he says, “I never noticed how black your eyes were.”

Chris Pratt then described Gunn’s approach to this kind of improv as being like a puppeteer working around the actors to get the most out of the scene on the spot. Gunn continued to explain how over time his approach had changed to simply get on an record what feels right in the moment, whether it makes the final cut or not. He added:

“I think that I just am more willing to take the time if I see something new if I find the magic, go ahead and do it. And sometimes you don’t use it. Most improv you do, and it doesn’t even end up in the movie, but it’s fun to do on set. It keeps things alive and then sometimes it does work, and you get to keep something.”

Related: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Where You’ve Seen the Actors Before

Will Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 be a Bigger Box Office Hit Than Quantumania?

Once upon a time there was a certainly that came with every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie of a huge box office and plenty of praise from both audiences and critics. However, the last few years have seen Marvel Studios struggle to quite hit all the right notes when it comes to their theatrical releases. This was proven earlier this year, when even the arrival of Kang the Conquerer couldn’t push Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania beyond a worldwide gross of $500 million.

So far, early reactions to James Gunn’s MCU swan song have been mostly positive, but of course that counts for nothing if audiences don’t turn out to theaters when the film arrives this weekend. With the promise that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 will be an emotional rollercoaster and close out the stories of a number of popular characters, there is every chance that the film could finally give the MCU the boost it has been looking for.