Waititi and Guardians – a recipe for perfection

Amid the release of the spectacular final trailer for May’s Black Widow, comicbook.com nearly had a hot scoop buried in the news cycle. According to Vin Diesel, the Guardians of the Galaxy will feature in some capacity in Thor 4: Love and Thunder, which releases in November 2021.

Now, I know that I literally just called this a hot scoop. But, in reality, an appearance from the Guardians was to be expected given that by the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame, Thor is about to jet off to a new life – and fresh quarrels – with Quill and his motley crew of Guardians.

However, the temporary firing and then re-hiring of James Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy 3, along with the subsequent release schedule shuffle which saw Thor 4 vault ahead of Guardians 3 in the release timeline has hardly left this GotG fan feeling comfortable about the future of the space misfits.

To have confirmation of their involvement in Thor 4 is great news it itself but when you consider all of the elements in play, it turns out that the delay of the third Guardians instalment has opened up a gold mine of storytelling potential.

For one thing, Taika Waititi directing the Guardians is a recipe for perfection. Thor: Ragnarok is the only MCU movie to reach the level of comedy that the first two Guardians movies managed, and Taika’s charismatic style of writing and direction is in harmony with Gunn’s. And it’s for that reason that Thor crashing into the Guardians’ lives via the Benatar windscreen in Infinity War felt so right and the characters’ chemistry was box office.

In fact, all members of Ragnarok‘s Revengers would surely gel well with the Guardians – especially Korg. A pile of rocks hoping to start a revolution is only believable in a world with a talking tree and raccoon double act.

Some interplay between those characters is just one of an almost endless pot of plot points that Waititi could draw upon. This will be a Thor movie, of course, and the Guardians might only play a role in the opening act, while Thor gets a Bowflex and commits in a style that Quill could only dream of. But even 15 minutes of screen time would be enough for Taika to allow the Guardians time to leave a mark on the movie.

I trust Taika more than any other director to look after these characters. If anyone is able to deliver an entertaining treatment for this crew at a level to match Gunn’s entries, it’s the guy who can turn the MCU’s most vanilla hero into one of it’s most entertaining.