'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2' Director James Gunn Talks Star-Lord's Father

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has already resolved one big mystery left over from the last film — the question of Star-Lord's true parentage. As we learned over the summer, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) is actually the son of Ego, the Living Planet, played by national treasure Kurt Russell. But while discovering you're descended from an actual planet is the kind of thing that could only happen in the Marvel universe, director James Gunn indicates the father-son relationship will be rooted in more grounded emotions.

In its own quirky way, Guardians of the Galaxy was all about family. Star-Lord's origin story began when he lost his mother and was taken in by Yondu (Michael Rooker), while Nebula's entire arc revolved around her efforts to break free of her adopted dad Thanos and sister Nebula. And, of course, the two of them formed their own little makeshift family with Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Drax over the course of the movie. The sequel promises to dig even deeper into those relationships, unearthing new complications in the process. As Gunn told USA Today:

To let somebody love you is a very difficult thing, especially when you're damaged goods. And all of the Guardians are damaged goods.

Star-Lord will be meeting his biological father for the first time, and it sounds like they'll have some crap to sort out. Gunn continued:

It runs the gamut of emotions for him, wanting to understand why his father wasn't around to quickly idolizing him and ultimately learning the reality of the relationship and comparing the man who sired him to the man who raised him.

So much of Marvel's success comes from their knack for humanizing their fantastical stable of heroes. If anyone can wring a heartfelt father-son drama out of a cheeky action-adventure about a space traveler and his planet dad, it'd be them. And all of this seems very much in line with Gunn's promises that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 would be a "more emotional" movie. (So emotional, in fact, that the first draft of the screenplay made Chris Pratt cry.) But there's no need to worry Guardians will have lost its comedic edge. In the same breath, Gunn stated that it would be funnier, too.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is in theaters May 5.