Kevin Feige Originally Planned A Darth Vader Reference in Guardians of the Galaxy

Though the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and its cast of cosmic thugs-turned-superheroes might be synonymous to director James Gunn now, there was a time in Marvel's history before the Super director was tapped to work on the cosmic superhero movies. Back then Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was playing around with the early idea of a space romp feature film showcasing a few of the Guardians from the Marvel comics and in its early stages, Feige had actually planned to have the film give out a few nods to the Star Wars franchise.

Speaking in with Mashable in a press conference for the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming, Feige began opening up about Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy, admitting that he had planned to put in a Darth Vader toy in the original film before he had hired Gunn to direct the movie.

"Always, we wanted to reveal at a certain point in the movie that Peter Quill was a human from Earth. And for a long time, I really thought it was going to be the greatest thing in the world that you're in a spaceship and he's talking to one of the alien characters and he knocks over his bag and one of the alien characters bends down and picks up and it was a Darth Vader action figure, goes, ‘What's this?'"

"To make a long story short, James Gunn was basically like, ‘I got a better idea. What if he had a Walkman and listened to music?' And it was like, ‘Oh, that's a million times better.' Because the Star Wars thing was just a nerdy reference in a single moment, and obviously, the conceit of the music redefined the entire movie."

While a Star Wars reference would have certainly pleased fans of the Jedi and Sith from a galaxy far, far away, Guardians of the Galaxy's music and quick-witted humor have made it one of Marvel's most successful film series to date.

There's no word on when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits the big screen, but Chris Pratt's Star Lord and the rest of the team are set to appear in Avengers: Infinity War on May 4, 2018.

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