James Gunn says he nearly killed off a major character in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2

James Gunn almost killed off a major character in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 before Marvel executives persuaded him against it.

Though the character – Zoe Saldaña’s Gamora – eventually met their demise a year later in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, the director said he was “talked out of” his original plan by Marvel Studio president Kevin Feige and executive producer Louis D’Esposito.

“Gamora almost died in Vol 2,” Gunn revealed in a recent interview with ComicBook.com.

“I knew from the beginning Zoe only wanted to play the character for so many years, and she’s been very honest saying that she’s done [after this]. And so I was going to have her die.”

He continued: “I thought she was the one that was going to sacrifice herself… I was kind of talked out of it by Kevin and Louis and then it just didn’t work that well. It didn’t feel right. It felt much more right to go where we go in that movie. That seemed what was correct for the story.”

Ultimately it was Yondu’s (Michael Rooker) death that replaced Gamora’s intended Vol 2 fate.

Gunn admitted that his close friendship with Rooker made him “afraid” of killing off Yondu, “but that was where the story naturally progressed to”.

He then recalled his conversation with Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo, in which they discussed their plan of killing Gamora.

“They called me up and said, ‘We’re thinking about this, does this work? Can you work with this?’ And I went, ‘Got it, yeah. I really can,’” Gunn said.

However, while Gamora dies in the 2018 film, an alternate version of her appears in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, and will feature in the Guardians trilogy’s final movie Vol 3.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 releases in cinemas on 5 May. Read The Independent’s four-star review of the movie here.