James Gunn conducted a Q&A session on his Facebook page to address some fan questions about last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy and what’s coming up for Marvel‘s most eclectic band of outlaws. Among the queries was about an insult directed toward Gamora by Drax — I’m talking about the “whore” comment. Don’t worry, I’ll only subject you to one paragraph of feminist killjoy analysis before getting to Gunn’s explanation. And then the fun stuff.
So, Drax calls Gamora a “green whore.” Personally, I didn’t think this was too egregious of a thing to say, especially in an alien prison environment like the Kyln where I’m sure much worse things were said. It’s not like they talk about puppies and crafts in there. But the comment did stick out like a sore thumb, as if everything else about the movie was above this kind of line. Still, it didn’t strike me as any worse than the “whore” line from Mean Girls, except that it was coming from a male character. Except Drax is not a typical male character and speaks 100 percent literally. So “green” notwithstanding, there was no additional color to this insult — in fact it wasn’t even an insult. Drax just heard in the Kyln that Gamora was a prostitute, so that’s what he called her. His original gripe with her also had nothing to do with her sexuality, so there really isn’t anything sexist about the comment.
But it still hit some people’s ears wrong, so Gunn addressed it directly:
I know some of you don’t like Drax calling Gamora a whore. But he heard people saying that to her in the Kyln. So don’t blame him, blame me… Because that’s what they called her in the Kyln and that’s what he thinks she is.
So, there we have it. This can officially be put to bed. Will Drax call Gamora a whore in the sequel? If he has been set straight on the correct occupation of his new ally, my guess is no, and he probably even apologized at some point.
Now, the fun stuff! Gunn discussed a few more things during the Q&A, so here are a few highlights:
Keeping Thanos in the movie was Gunn’s decision and it made things harder to write:
People read an interview with me saying Thanos talking about how difficult he was to put in the movie. They seemed to take it to mean that I didn’t want him in the movie and Marvel did. But I CHOSE to have him in the film. Kevin at one point wanted to take him out. But I didn’t want to lose the connection to the Avengers since more people would see the movie. I also like Thanos. But he was difficult because he made the relationships to the other characters so difficult and more complicated – and he served future stories more than this one.
Nebula knew exactly what she was doing the last time we saw her:
Sometimes people are confused what happens to Nebula. She looks down for something to fall on, allows herself to fall on a Ravager craft, and takes out the Goth Ravager inside and flies away, leaving everyone to deal with this shit themselves, because she’s stopped caring. She will be back.
On that other racy line:
The Jackson Pollock line was something I said on set and asked Chris [Pratt] to say. We only filmed it one time. People thought we were wasting time on set, because nothing that dirty would ever make it into the film.
On the future of Guardians of the Galaxy:
I knew what [Guardians of the Galaxy 2] was essentially going to be about halfway through shooting. I basically have plans for three other stories connected to Guardians if I stay with [Marvel] that long.
You can read the full Q&A on Facebook.
Via CBR