Unreality Companion: No Guardians in Infinity War?

In which I expand on the content from my weekly Unrealitymag.com article.

Up until about an hour ago, I was at a complete loss about what to write about for this week.  I reviewed Guardians of the Galaxy for Unreality, but had absolutely no idea what to connect into that with.  I had already brought up what I thought Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will be about and even touched on how the Guardians of the Galaxy has heralded a new Golden Age of superhero cinema, where literally everything is on the table for adaptation.  What did that leave for this article?

But then I came across a quote by Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn when asked about the possibility of his intrepid team:

"We really are separate from the Avengers, and I don't think people should assume too many things about the Guardians play in all these. We have our own galaxy to take care of. We have our own galaxy to save. Earth is the Avengers’ province. Thinking that everything is going to come together in a perfect way is not necessarily the way it's going to happen." 

This changes everything.  The assumption until now was that we would be seeing everybody in Infinity Wars, and I mean everybody: upwards of 30 Avengers, the remaining agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and any number of supporting characters from each stand-alone franchise.  For those of you who've been counting, that would potentially include Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, War Machine, Black Falcon, the questionably reformed Winter Soldier, Star Lord, Gamora, Groot, Rocket, Drax, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, The Vision, Ant-Man, Wasp, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Ms. / Captain Marvel, Black Bolt, Medusa, Crystal, Gorgon, Karnak, Luna, Lockjaw, Triton PLUS Nick Fury, Maria Hill, Director Coulson and his team (Skye, Fitz, Simmons, May, Triplett, Hunter, Mackenzie, Morse) PLUS anybody else they decided could use some screen time.  This is in addition to the actual antagonists - Thanos, Nebula & Co. - who featured prominently in Guardians of the Galaxy.

This is only a fraction of who would potentially make the cut.

And even with two movies spread over two years to help spread everything around, it would obviously be even more crowded than how Batman vs Superman is looking right now.  Not including everybody in the films is obviously the right decision to make, but it's just so shocking to hear those making the movies say so, given how interconnected the meta-franchises have been thus far.  Each Avengers film seemed to exist purely for the purpose of throwing every one on the growing roster of heroes together; The Avengers included the main four plus Hawkeye and Black Widow while Age of Ultron promises the previous six plus Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, The Vision, Black Falcon, War Machine, Nick Fury, Maria Hill and Heimdall.  The natural - if unmanageable - progression from there is to include the everybody already mentioned plus everybody about to be introduced.

But looking on this issue with a bit more clarity than before, it looks like the five Guardians of the Galaxy and their supporting cast are out Infinity Wars and, if my prediction about Guardians of the Galaxy 2 are right, maybe Hulk as well.  And seeing how both Captain Marvel and Inhumans come out between Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2, all of those characters are also likely to not make the cut for the Infinity Wars cast.  Plus, seeing as how Inhumans is so closely tied to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., it would be fairly safe to assume that those characters would be largely off limits as well.

Mark my words, though, Captain America: Civil War will have some kind of repercussions in the MCU that will keep at least a few others out of that particular lineup as well; in other words, guess who's going to die in 2016 (my money's on the disenfranchised Hawkeye: suitably tragic, given his Avenger status, but nothing that will end an otherwise profitable solo series).

We'll just have to wait and see.  But, if Gunn's any indication, we at least have a clearer idea about what shape Infinity Wars might take, even if it means that we'll have to wait a good while longer before we get to see Star Lord take in the sights of Earth.

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