IndieWire had a chance to catch up with James Gunn, whose Guardians of The Galaxy surprised many with its combination of critical praise and box office dominance. All eyes are on the director now to create a worthy follow-up.

How far along is the scripting process for the sequel?

“I had the basic story for number two while I was working on number one, and perhaps even beyond that. So it’s gonna answer a lot of questions that are proposed in the first one, and we’ll be able to get to know some of the characters we didn’t get to know in the first one a little bit more, and we might meet a few new characters too.”

Gunn famously came from smaller films, which was one of the surprises when he was announced as the director for one of Marvel’s tentpoles. What are his thoughts on making that jump, and would he go back?

“I will admit that generally I don’t feel the desire to do that. Generally I likemaking big movies! It suits me, especially when I can make them like ‘Guardians’ where I’m actually loving what I’m telling. I wouldn’t want to go off and do something I wasn’t excited about, but luckily I’m excited by big pop things, I’m just like that. And I like being able to mix it with something that’s a little edgier. I’m pretty lucky.

But there were times I was watching something, and I was thinking you know, maybe it would be kinda cool to make a little low-budget movie again. But not that low budget.”

Exactly how much has he enjoyed this jump to blockbuster filmmaking? Quite a bit.

“I will say that on my first day shooting ‘Guardians,’ I was like, ‘really? THIS is what you do?’ You wait, and you set up the shot and then I get to come back and… sit down. And have a cup of coffee and talk to my friend. And then I go back and do a bit more work. It’s not like ‘arrrrggghhhh’ the whole time.

The difference is it went on for 85 days. So the marathon aspect of it is very important. But there are some things about it that are definitely more pleasant than making low budget films.”

He would go on to say that he’ll likely return to smaller films once he feels like he needs a break from all the pressure of making Guardians films for Marvel. But, for now, he’s happy to keep exploring this world.

SOURCE: IndieWire