There’s a Reason James Gunn Didn’t Give Marvel’s First F-Bomb to Who You Might Expect
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a special film in many ways: as James Gunn’s parting gift to the Marvel Cinematic Universe prior to becoming the Kevin Feige equivalent of the incoming DC Universe, as the final form of Gunn’s creative freedom in the franchise, and of course, as the site of its first f-bomb.
It was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, but the filmmaker did indeed manage to break this cheeky piece of new ground courtesy of Star-Lord’s momentary frustration with his and Nebula’s combined incompetency with Earthly motor vehicles. This, however, may have been the only context that Gunn was willing to pull it off in.
In typical Gunn fashion, the filmmaker revealed on Threads that the f-bomb was never going to be anything more than a fun throwaway moment; had the privilege gone to someone like Rocket Raccoon, whose story is the meat and potatoes of Guardians 3—particularly in the moment when Rocket proudly embraced the “raccoon” part of his identity, as a fan had suggested—the word would have undermined the weight of the character arc by drawing attention to itself.
Of all the members of the original Guardians, Star-Lord was probably the optimal choice as the f-bomb vehicle; it would have been too fitting for Nebula or Gamora, too jarring for Drax or Mantis, and giving it to Groot would have single-handedly drawn all the attention off the rest of the movie, making Star-Lord the safest option for sneaking in the MCU’s first f-bomb with the perfect amount of unceremonious chuckle potential.
The big question now, of course, is which of the new Guardians of the Galaxy will be given the f-bomb responsibility going forward. My vote goes to Cosmo the Spacedog, as the MCU has yet to take full advantage of Maria Bakalova’s comedic timing, but either way, I’m sure that’s a conversation that will be taken very seriously.
(featured image: Marvel Studios)
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