Even though he now runs DC Studios and makes movies about Superman and shows about the Peacemaker, it’s hard not to think James Gunn when you hear the words “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Who else in Hollywood would look at weirdos like Drax the Destroyer or Rocket Raccoon and decide to make them the main characters of a Disney blockbuster? Only the guy who made Mister Terrific one of the best parts of a Superman movie, right?Not necessarily. Turns out, the guy who decided that a Predator movie needs a cute animal sidekick—and was right!—could have done it too. Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg recently revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he was once in the running for the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. “I will say that I met a producer named Jeremy Latcham at [Marvel Studios] and [Kevin Feige], because of Jeremy, to meet for Guardians of the Galaxy before James Gunn, based on my short film Portal [No Escape] he recalled (via The Playlist). “They were like ‘That’s creative, let’s find someone interesting and cool.’ I did not get the job, obviously, and rightfully so, but still so so awesome.”cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Hard to believe as it may be today, there’s a certain logic to the potential Trachtenberg hire. He knows how to work within established worlds; in fact, the short movie that got him so much attention is Portal—No Escape, based on the hit Valve video game. Since then, Trachtenberg not only turned his tense locked room thriller into the franchise film 10 Cloverfield Lane, but he also has been revitalizing the Predator series with interesting and unexpected turns, first by sending the Yautja to the Great Plains in 1719 for Prey, then with the animated romp Predator: Killer of Killers, and now with Badlands.And what about the weird love of Z-list heroes that drives Guardians of the Galaxy? Surely James Gunn brought that to the Marvel movie, right?Yes, but not as much as you think. Not only is the first Guardians film co-written by studio hand Nicole Perlman, who also wrote Captain Marvel and Pokémon Detective Pikachu, she was the one who advocated for it in the first place, itself a comic book series recently reimagined by writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. Before Abnett and Lanning came aboard, the Guardians of the Galaxy were essentially the Avengers of the future, a team of aliens who band together in the 31st century to battle the oppressive Badoon.In 2006, Marvel enlisted writer Keith Giffen to revamp the company’s cosmic line with the crossover Annihilation. Out from that, Abnett and Lanning brought together space-based C-listers into a new team, revising their characteristics along the way. Originally a Hulk-like idiot in a purple cape, Drax the Destroyer became a stoic killer; originally a Buck Rogers-esque space adventurer, Star-Lord became a complicated hero struggling with failure; originally an invading monster from Planet X, Groot became a tree man who says “I am Groot.”Of course, Gunn put his own spin on those characters, making Drax a different kind of idiot and giving Star-Lord a love of ’70s and ’80s pop music. But the basics were there before he came aboard.All of which means that Dan Trachtenberg could totally have worked on Guardians of the Galaxy and given us something similar to what we now have, albeit with a different spin. Given the success that both Gunn and Trachtenberg have had lately, we’re glad things worked out the way they did. But imagine what weirdness Trachtenberg could bring to the superhero genre should he ever have the opportunity again to walk in James Gunn’s footsteps.Predator: Badlands is now playing in theaters.The post Predator: Badlands Director Almost Made Guardians of the Galaxy appeared first on Den of Geek.