It's been three years since James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 landed into theaters. A sequel to the surprise success of the first film, Vol. 2 upped the ante in every way, introducing new characters like Mantis and Baby Groot, sending our misfit group of heroes on a much more emotional and character-driven journey, all while jamming out to a new set of Awesome Mix hits.
Even for massive Marvel blockbusters, the directors involved must still take some quality rehearsal time to work with their actors and perfect the choreography of critical scenes. While this process is not usually seen by the public, James Gunn has taken to Twitter in order to reveal a few key Vol. 2 scene rehearsals, as well as the moments that make working on a Marvel movie so fun.
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In response to a fan's question on Twitter about the director's rehearsal process for his films, James Gunn shared a brief answer, followed by a set of pictures from the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 rehearsals.
Gunn then shared the rest of the pictures in a thread to his first Tweet:
This scene here between Mantis and Drax had to carefully balance humorous and tragic tones, as Drax not only speaks to Mantis about her horrifying appearance, but also her resemblance to his late daughter. There's no question that James Gunn had to put in a lot of work to perfect the tonal journey of this short scene, and it undoubtedly paid off.
Speaking of tragic moments, in this picture Chris Pratt and Michael Rooker rehearse one of the most memorable scenes in the entire film. Yondu was given much more of an emotional arc in the sequel, and his relationship with Quill became one of the cornerstones of Vol. 2 's story. Yondu's final sacrifice was an emotional end to his character, and it all started here.
It's interesting to see that the rehearsal process isn't just about the movements, but also dissecting the meaning of each scene. The argument between Peter and Gamora comes from a very emotional place in this scene, and it's exciting to get a look into how the actors work that out.
Another emotional and character-driven scene here. Sean Gunn is seen standing in for Bradley Cooper's Rocket, next to Michael Rooker. It's fascinating to see how meticulously everything is planned out, from the acting all the way down to the tape that represents the sets.
Here James Gunn takes another sit-down approach to find the right emotional center of a scene, this time for Chris Pratt's funeral speech for Yondu at the end of the film. Another scene that balanced a bit of sly humor with tragedy, there's no doubt that Pratt and Gunn had to go through a lot of trial-and-error to get everything just right.
The scene here came towards the end of the film, where Nebula and Gamora finally confronted each other and got to the core of their conflict. Directing a scene that encapsulates a two-film arc isn't easy, and here Gunn reveals why the final film pulls it off so well.
Another emotional moment for Quill, here the hero gets the attention from his father that he's always wanted. While it's a small scene that consists of a simple action, there's still tons of motivation and emotion that goes into it, which makes the rehearsal all the more necessary.
This picture is a great little example of how much fun it can be to work on a film like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 . Especially when you have Michael Rooker on your cast.
And to end it all off, a group picture of the Guardians of the Galaxy. It was such a blast to see a rare glimpse into a film's rehearsal process, and there's no doubt that the pre-production process of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be just as fun.
