Kevin Feige talks Guardians of the Galaxy casting, Agents of SHIELD and Netflix

In a new interview with wired.com Kevin Feige talks casting for the Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel TV hitting Netflix and Agents of SHIELD.

When asked about bringing a human audience into this greater world of talking trees, talking raccoons and other out there alien types Feige makes an interesting point about using Peter Quill to connect the audience to this strange world.

“What was going to link, ground and anchor the movie for our (primarily!) human audience that is going to see it was the character of Peter Quill. Also, by extension, the music and soundtrack Quill listens to…He’s our human entry point into this world so we needed to be entertained by him, moved by him, and connect to him.”

Feige goes on to talk about the casting of Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, the Star Lord. Personally I loved this casting. The rebooted Guardians from MarvelNOW has proven to be one of Marvel’s most fun books so bringing in someone like Pratt was a great move, but it turns out that Pratt felt unsure of himself when it came to playing a Marvel hero.

“We saw close to a dozen very, very good, well-known actors for his part. Then Chris came in, and initially he didn’t want to. I think he felt a little self-conscious because his body was in Parks and Recreation shape, which is much closer to the shape I’m in than the shape he’s in now! And the audition required a lot — the costume didn’t exist yet but we knew roughly what it was going to be so put the actors in all these long trench coats. We gave them these guns and in addition to the acting scenes we made them do some posing with the guns, all gunslinger style towards the camera. I think he was self-conscious of doing that too, and when he came in to do that move — it wasn’t based on that move why he cast him, let’s put it that way! Now, it’s his signature move and it’s in the movie and it’s awesome.”

Feige also went on to talk about the casting of Doctor Who favorite Karen Gillen.

“We were looking at people in the States and the UK. Karen had two things going for her. One, she had a great audition. It was a great bonus that she had a fanbase from Doctor Who, but that wasn’t the driving factor. And two, she was willing to shave her head! She ended up not only shaving her head, but last year at San Diego Comic Con, you may remember she came out in a wig and dramatically revealed her shaven head. It was so ballsy and so awesome. She did all her interviews, and the behind-the-scenes footage that you’ll start to see rolling out of the movie, completely bald, out of makeup. She’s beautiful with and without hair, and it was really, really cool that she was willing to do that. Nebula, the character she’s playing, is a conflicted character who needs to have a number of different layers and a performance that comes through her rather striking, dramatic look.”

Feige was also asked if Agents of SHIELD would somehow connect to GotG in the same way Winter Soldier did.

“I’m not sure. They’re working on the second season right now, they’re cracking the episodes for that, so I’m not exactly sure what their plans are. But I know that everyone’s very happy about the connectivity between Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Agents of SHIELD. They’re constantly aware of what we’re doing in the movies and take their lead from the feature films. I think they’ve already tied in a couple of blue aliens in the first season that might may or may not relate to blue aliens inGuardians — I’m not being coy, by the way, I’m really not sure if it does or not. There’s always that chance for connectivity but I’m not exactly sure what they’ve got in store for episode-by-episode for season two.”

Wired also got in a question about the slew of new Marvel projects coming to Netflix and how they might play into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I loved his answer here.

“I think they’re being very smart about that, approaching the shows the way we approach movies, which is to focus on the core project, make sure it’s as great as it can be, beginning, middle, and end. Then they see if there are places where it makes sense for some interweaving of continuity. Right now, their goal, and they’re in production on the Daredevil series, is focusing on making it the best incarnation of Daredevil that has ever existed.”

I think we all want to see some kind of connectivity between all these projects, but I love the fact that he says our first intention is to make a great show first, then we will see what we can work in from there. I don’t know about you guys, but I can not wait for Guardians to drop. Even with all the love Winter Soldier received, I truly believe that by summer’s end Guardians of the Galaxy will stand as Marvel’s best movie to date. Get yourselves ready because the Guardians blast off for fun and adventure August 1st.