They're making Guardians of the Galaxy because they think it will make the required money both domestically and internationally to spawn a sequel and franchise and also shift a bunch of toy units. There have been more films like Guardians of The Galaxy than there have been like Black Panther, far more. Money is what this ultimately comes down to, Marvel dont want to take the risk at this moment in time, they definitely dont want their first minority superhero film to flop or it to turnout like Blade 3.
See that's bullshyt though, it's not about getting Will Smith its about getting the right ACTOR and DIRECTOR involved. Nobody knew who the fukk Chris Hemsworth was before Thor. Dude was an Australian soap opera actor! Marvel got the RIGHT actor and got the RIGHT Director involved and made a hit. If you give Duncan Jones and Chiwetol Ejifor a Black Pather movie that shyt could be fukking brilliant. And I'm just throwing out names, with Marvel the BRAND now carries the weight of success, NOT the actor. A Black Panther movie fully woven into the MCU right now is basically a proven success. They proved it with a Man who flies in a suit of armor, a man who turns into a rage filled green freak when upset, a GOD who wields a magical hammer, AND a man who calls himself "Captain America". Their about to do fukking Guardians Of The Galaxy, a group NOBODY outside of comic heads is familiar with a man whose best claim to fame was starring in a WB teen soap opera called. Everwood back in 2004 in the main role
Like I said. NO GODDAMN EXCUSES
The movie could be good, but that doesn't mean that it will sell and make money that the execs want it to(just look at Dredd). The problem is that there haven't been a lot of films of this type, that haven't had a "star", I cant think of any big budget film film with a black lead that hasn't starred Will Smith, I'm talking about a budget that's $150M+ so that will make the execs even more cautious to finance and make the film in addition to the large black supporting cast(do they do a Django and have the character surrounded by whites and a few black supporting characters to be "safe", you're already looking at controversy there, you can get away with that in a teamup film but in a solo?).Thor was filled with Oscar winning and flavour of the month actors and based on a mythological character. Marvel aren't interested in "small", "Standalone stories", "low budget" films, that's what the one shots are there for. Guardians of The Galaxy is simply another movie with a "white" lead which is the norm of the majority Hollywood movies, especially the big budget one's, that's as safe as you can get. It also comes down to other things like will there be enough toy units and mini sets to sell?, will enough toy units be sold?, will the merchanidse sales be high?, will tie-in promoters and investors be attracted to the character and film and so on. It's the same with female superheroes films.
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