'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Animated Series Is Unrelated To Films; New Kid-Friendly Comic Coming

Once Guardians of the Galaxy became a monster hit movie, it was obvious those characters were about to become part of our culture. Big time. So in addition to all the merchandise, art and the 2017 sequel, we got news of a new animated series. And now, Marvel Comics is launching a kid-friendly comic book to go along with other comics titles, which are aimed a bit older.

Below, we've got more on that as well as a stop to the rumor the new animated Guardians of the Galaxy Disney XD show has anything at all to do with the movies.

Let's start with the Guardians of the Galaxy animated series. Rumor had it that the show, which will air on Disney XD starting in 2015, would take place in the time period between the first and second movie. While that may be what the show's creators are thinking, that's not what the main creative force behind the films, James Gunn thinks. At all.

"Is that what somebody said? Because that's not true. There's no way," Gunn told us. "It's totally separate from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and whoever said that, it pisses me off." In fact it was Stephen Wacker, Marvel's vice president for animation, who told the New York Times "the show's plot would pick up where the movie left off." Now, there's obviously some semantics here. Wacker probably means the team is all together, like at the end of the movie. Either way, do not think of the Guardians of the Galaxy animated series as Guardians 1.5.

Another, Guardians of the Galaxy property coming soon is a new, kid friendly comic book. It's called Marvel Universe: Guardians of the Galaxy, and will be written by Joe Caramagna, who does similar "all ages" comics for The Avengers and Spider-Man. This new series, which will be out in 2015, will be the sixth Guardians themed comic Marvel puts out: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians 3000, The Legendary Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon and the upcoming Gamora. You can read more about the new comic at Marvel.com.

Of note, Marvel.com has the below image as the cover to Marvel Universe: Guardians of the Galaxy #1. It's the exact same image used for the upcoming Disney XD series.

Are you disappointed the animated series is unrelated to the films?