Taking a comics character from the printed page to the big screen isn't as easy as you
might think, and Guardians of the Galaxy's Gamora was no exception.
Just ask Charlie Wen, former head of visual development at Marvel Studios, and take a
look at some of the designs that didn't make the cut.
Before 2014, there's a good chance that if you said the phrase "Guardians of the Galaxy"
to your average moviegoer, their reaction would be pretty similar across the board:
"Who the hell are you guys?"
And that's exactly what Charlie Wen was banking on when he started adapting the characters
from Marvel Comics' long history of spacefaring weirdos for Guardians of the Galaxy.
"Nobody knew what Guardians was.
It's very niche.
And so, what was great was it also left it so that we could do a lot with it.
If you upset some of the hardcore fans, maybe it's okay because there's not as many of them.
Ya know?
What it did do is it allowed for a lot of exploration to create a Marvel Space Odyssey."
That freedom to experiment is probably why the screen version of Gamora, as well as the
concept art Wen created, has very little in common with the comic book depictions that
have appeared in the pages of Marvel Comics over the years.
Some comic book characters are relatively easy to adapt to the screen, at least when
it comes to knowing what to keep and what to junk.
Batman, Spider-Man, and Wonder Woman may have outlandish comic book outfits, but they also
feature iconic details that make them recognizable.
Captain America without his shield and super-outfit suddenly becomes a guy who's a little too
excited every July Fourth.
And Wolverine without his claws is just your hairy Uncle Lou, back with another case of
Molson.
Gamora, by contrast, doesn't really have any features that truly define her look in the
minds of comic book fans, and that presented a major design challenge for the team.
Where do you begin?
For Wen, it started with archetypes… but it didn't end there.
"As an archetype, she's this, ya know, lone assassin that functions on her own.
You start there, but then I think you really need to add in those elements that she needs
to service."
While this concept art doesn't seem too out there, it also doesn't really communicate
many ideas about who Gamora is or what she wants or needs.
Gamora's adventuring gear seems like she's ready for battle, but we can't tell much about
her character beyond that.
According to Wen, an essential part of the design process comes not simply from picking
the right look for the right character.
In fact, it's quite the opposite.
"When you're trying to write some kind of story, paint an image, one of the things that
you do first is you figure out what your limits are.
The farthest you're gonna go, where are you gonna start with, and so it's your contrast.
What is your contrast?"
That idea of establishing the contrast is clearly at play in this concept art, where
we see Gamora looking a whole lot different from any of her depictions, either onscreen
or on the page.
Wen led the team about as far away as they could from the comics, just to see how far
they could stretch the idea of Gamora before it broke down.
With her purple skin, weirdly tapered ears, and her dimpled, mostly bald skull, these
versions of Gamora definitely have a passing resemblance to her adopted dad, Thanos.
But she feels a lot more unsettling and creepy than you might expect for a big-budget Marvel
movie hero.
As Wen directed his team to continue exploring different looks for Gamora's onscreen appearance,
they started moving in interesting new directions.
Case in point: this light-purple version of Gamora, whose skin features some of the intricate
markings that would become a part of the final design's signature look.
More importantly, however, is the expression on her face, which seems to express a lot
more of what might be going on inside her head.
Wen told us that Kevin Feige was very interested in this particular look for Gamora.
But ultimately they decided it was more difficult to pull off the intricate tech on her face
than it was worth.
As Gamora's look evolved, her character began to emerge in the concept art Charlie Wen created.
In these images, we see two similar settings and scenarios for the character, Gamora in
a crowded sci-fi locale, surrounded by aliens and other outer space weirdness.
But you can see that even though the Gamora in this image is undoubtedly cool and on the
hunt, this other one that looks lost in thought seems to have a lot more in common with the
version of the character we got in Guardians of the Galaxy.
"You know, she's this super assassin that's from a different alien race, and connected
with Thanos, Ronan, Nebula.
So, she's got, again, she's got her own dysfunctional family to worry about.
She has to have certain vulnerabilities, even in just her look.
You can't just go for this ninja, right, that's all covered and everything.
There's a part of her that is exposed.
I think the word vulnerable paints it a little bit better.
Also that she needs to be a character that you can relate to, because she's gonna have
that kind of connection with Peter Quill, you know, later on."
While this image still doesn't look a ton like the finalized look for Gamora, her purple
skin is a dead giveaway, it still manages to express more about the character and the
world of Guardians of the Galaxy than any of the previous versions.
Seeing Gamora at the bar with her Cheshire Cat grin seems to make her look dangerous
and deadly… but also ready to get drunk thanks to the four-armed barkeep right behind
her.
What's most important is that this version of Gamora has tons of personality.
That's the most important part when designing meaningful characters that audiences will
spend a lot of time with.
"How do you make her feel like a character that you would really feel for if something
happens to her?"
Considering how fans reacted when she died at the hands of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity
War, it goes without saying that Wen and the team he led at Marvel Studios completely succeeded
in answering that particular question.
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