Chris Pratt calls out critics who thought Guardians of the Galaxy would flop

Back in 2014, Marvel set out to introduce its next team of cinematic heroes: The Guardians of the Galaxy. Fronted by ’70s music fanatic Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), the team features a talking raccoon and a sentient tree. Critics had reason to believe that the lesser-known superhero team would flop hard on the big screen, and how wrong they were.

Even today, after two successful movies and several appearances in the wider MCU, star Chris Pratt has not forgiven the early doubters. “I’m not a vindictive person…but I happened to have in my notes file several press clippings saved from the first movie when everyone predicted that ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ was going to be Marvel’s first flop,” he told Fandango.

"That was the consensus critically. Everyone was saying all of these negative things. At the time, we were insecure and nervous about the prospects….they’re saying it’s a title no one has never heard of, we don’t have any A-list stars, [it will be] Marvel’s first failure. I remember all of that."

Ultimately, the doubters were proven wrong. Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t only go down well with fans; the critics ended up loving it, too. The team really hit the ground running and continued making appearances in other movies, with the titular crew now completing an elusive MCU trilogy after a decade of action. “We had this great run. At the end, I wanted to read some of those clippings to the cast and crew and to [director James Gunn] and to…I guess kind of rub it in a little bit,” Pratt said.

The first movie grossed $772 million worldwide, beating out Captain America: The Winter Soldier ($714.4 million), which premiered the same year. With Vol. 3 releasing next month, there should be fewer doubters this time around.

James Gunn thinks the Blip makes Marvel movies harder to make

Despite the MCU moving onto the vast multiverse storyline thanks to the arrival of the new big bad Kang the Conqueror, the biggest event is still Thanos’ snap. Wiping out half of all existence with the snap of his fingers, “the Blip” has to be written into almost every project, something James Gunn finds particularly annoying.

“I really want Marvel to keep making good movies. I think it’s really hard in the wake of the Blip,” he admitted in an interview with CinemaBlend. “There’s this worldwide, universe-wide event that happened. And in truth, everybody would be stark raving mad at this point.”

"So it’s hard to write stories in the wake of that. Which is why the Guardians movies have been easier, because they’re set outside of that a little bit."

Tickets for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are on sale now. The movie opens on May 5. Prepare for a very emotional final outing!

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h/t Variety