It’s become a bit of a pastime for Marvel fans worldwide to daydream about how they would change, alter, or flesh out various narrative threads in the blockbuster franchise’s cinematic universe. While many of these musings tend to lean toward what-if scenarios not unlike Marvel’s aptly titled What If? Disney+ show, Guardians of the Galaxy actor Zoe Saldaña has come forward with her post-snap epiphany for the universe’s deadliest assassin, Gamora.
In a recent Variety YouTube video, where she was tested on her knowledge of lines from her extensive portfolio of popular films, Saldaña reflected on her role as Gamora and expressed a desire to delve deeper into her character. Specifically, Saldaña felt somewhat rudderless in how she was to portray Gamora in the later Avengers movies and wished she had explored more aspects of the character in Avengers: Endgame.
“I wish I could go back and reshoot what Gamora was going through in the Avengers movies,” Saldaña told Variety. “I don’t think I was quite understanding what the Russo Brothers [were doing].”
Saldaña’s confusion with Gamora’s character arc is completely understandable considering her character not only met her demise after being flung from a cliffside by her father, Thanos, but also continued to exist through an alternate timeline version of herself. This decision retroactively led director James Gunn to sort out the pieces with Guardians of the Galaxy 3 by ostensibly making do with her development being undone. Having had time away from the whole experience, Saldaña wishes she could reverse time and explore Gamora and Thanos’ tumultuous family ties.
“I wish that I could go back and redo it so that I can push a little harder, because it was such a great opportunity to play a daughter having issues with a dad,” she said. “And whether or not she’s having this opportunity to reconciliate or to heal or to repair or simply just walk away from this person—that would have been a great opportunity had I been a little more aware of it back then.”
She continued: “I wish I could go back in time and just try so many more things for her,” she said. “[Gamora] was a really fun character to play, but also a really deep character… I know it’s a Marvel movie and we don’t like to use words like ‘deep’ and ‘Marvel’ in the same sentence, but I like to and I take great pride in knowing that I was a part of great films that cater to a younger audience, that inspires a younger audience.”
Rather than harp on what could’ve been and hem and haw over where her character ended up at the culmination of Guardians 3, Saldaña expressed gratitude for her experience working with Gunn and transforming its characters from deep-cut Marvel mythos to household names.
“We were supposed to be these rejects that came with childhood traumas and disabilities and mental issues,” Saldaña said. “And he gave these characters space to be loved, to learn about self-love, to love each other, to find a family within their friendship. It was actually a really important film now that I look back at it.”
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