Filmmaker James Gunn’s Marvel days are over. Following a trilogy of “Guardians Of The Galaxy” movies and one “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special,” he’s moved on to DC and become the co-CEO of DC Studios.
Next up for the writer/director is his “Superman” film while he oversees DC Studios with co-CEO Peter Safran. But in a fascinating conversation with Happy Sad Confused about his new animated DC Studios series, “Creature Commandos,” Gunn went down memory lane briefly to discuss the past.
READ MORE: James Gunn Says ‘Booster Gold,’ ‘Waller’ & ‘Batman: Brave & The Bold’ Scripts Aren’t Greenlight Ready Yet
Asked if he would ever have taken over Marvel Studios if Kevin Feige had ever left, he essentially said no. In fact, he added that he was offered his DC Studios gig long before it was announced, and he turned it down—it took for Warner Bros. to come up with the brilliant idea to split it with Safran that Gunn finally agreed.
So what could have been, or what did Gunn not get to finish during his time at Marvel? Well, a lot of projects, actually.
The director revealed that he wanted to turn The Ravagers featured in “The Guardians of The Galaxy,” and most prominently in ‘Vol. 2’ with Sylvester Stallone as one of the prominent leaders was something he wanted to turn into a spin-off series. Gunn also revealed he wanted to make a “Star-Lord” spin-off—he didn’t disclose whether it was film or TV.
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“There are so many [‘Guardians’ projects I would have liked to explore],” he explained.  “The  ‘Ravagers’ show, I thought that could be a fun thing,” “The Legendary Star-Lord,” honestly, frankly, we had a whole idea for that.”
In fact, Gunn revealed he really wanted to do a “Rocket and Groot” project, potentially as a film, but was persuaded to do “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3” instead, so he folded those Rocket and Groot ideas into that final film in the trilogy.
“And then ‘Rocket And Groot’—to be honest, ‘Rocket and Groot’ is what ‘Guardians 3’ was,” he explained. “I wanted to do ‘Rocket and Groot’ first, but and then I was talked into doing ‘Guardians 3’ instead of ‘Rocket and Groot,’ and that’s kind of—because I knew I needed to tell Rocket’s story.”
As for what’s next for the ‘Guardians,’ that’s not under his purview anymore, but he’s said he hopes their stories continue at Marvel.
“Listen, I’m excited for them to go do whatever they want to with ‘Guardians,’ I would love them to take those characters and see more stories with them.”
Watch the entire interview below.