Kevin Feige Says Guardians Of The Galaxy Movies Succeeded "Entirely Because Of James Gunn"

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the end of the road for a lot of the gang, with most of the main cast saying they're done with the MCU after this movie. Likewise, writer/director James Gunn, who has shepherded the Guardian of the Galaxy series from the start, is already co-boss of rival DC Studios--he's not going to be making any more Marvel movies while he holds that job. Even so, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige had nothing but love for Gunn at the film's press conference with the cast ahead of the movie's release.

"What has this trilogy impressed upon you? Working with James, seeing his vision, watching this come to fruition and the fans reaction, what are you learning?" asked moderator Nathan Fillion, who also had a supporting role in Guardians 3.

"You know, we've had trilogies before. We've had a number of them, actually. And I was thinking, 'Why does this feel so different and so much of a passage of some sort?'" Feige reflected on the stage. "And it's because Guardians really was the first movie that was completely outside of the realm. It tied in with Thanos and Infinity Stones. But The Avengers were not in it. And we weren't setting up Tony Stark's next adventure, or Captain America.

"It was really our attempt of saying: 'We don't wanna just do superhero movies. We don't want to just do Iron Man movies or Avengers movies.' And we wanted to do, as James said earlier, a big space movie. And it worked in a crazy way. It worked entirely because of James Gunn. So, it just feels like this trilogy, and James writing and directing all three of them, it represents something unique within the pantheon of the MCU, that I'm very proud of."

Fillion then asked Feige if he would have done anything differently with these films. And Feige immediately looked at Gunn.

"I don't know that we would've," Gunn said. "By the way, talking about it being grounded in sci-fi, you know, one of my favorite moments in this movie is you driving a car, right? It's all the characters in a car, those shots in the backseat and you turn around. I mean, for some reason, it feels like I'm in the car with my friends, that it just feels so fun and cool. Would we have done anything [differently]? I don't know how we could've."

Feige then pondered the sort of real-world arc for this MCU subfranchise, which has been far more successful than anyone expected considering how obscure this group was in the comics.

"The goal has always been to do justice to the audience members who have loved these characters their whole lives, and to audience members who've never heard of these characters, or who heard of them for the first time in the trailer or in the poster. Which, for Guardians in particular, was certainly the majority of the audience," Feige noted with a bit of wryness.

"Now on the flip side of that, there are people who go, 'Well, people don't really know the Guardians, so you really have a lot of leeway to do new things.' Which you do," Feige went on.

"But James was constantly going to the comics and constantly referring to the comics and constantly building off of the storylines. So, people who did know these characters from the more recent run at the time, or the early run, saw things they could get excited about. And, just as important: people who never heard of this crazy spaceman with a tree and a raccoon."

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters on Friday.