Marvel director James Gunn reveals he ‘stole Guardians of the Galaxy 2 idea from fan theories on Twitter’

Director said he thought the internet theories were ‘hilarious’

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 director James Gunn has revealed that he “stole” the idea for a scene from online fan theories. 

In the 2017 film, a sequel to the hit 2014 MCU sci-fi Guardians of the Galaxy, one scene sees the late Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee portray The Watcher, an extra-terrestrial being who watches over galactic events.

Before his death in 2018, Lee had appeared in cameos in every film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Though each film saw him appear as a different character, fans had speculated that they were all in fact different iterations of the same character, The Watcher, who was deliberately inserting himself into events to keep an eye on things. 

His appearance in the second Guardians film confirmed this theory, prompting one Twitter user to write this week: “Daily reminder that Stan Lee was canonically a Watcher informant, and was playing the same character in every MCU movie, keeping an eye on the heroes and their adventures.  Thank you @JamesGunn!”

In response, Gunn wrote: “I stole the idea from fan theories on Twitter, which I thought were hilarious.”

Gunn is currently attached to direct the third Guardians of the Galaxy film, which will see Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel reprise their roles from the first two films.