10 Ways MCU Movies Nearly Turned Out Completely Different
8. Peter Quill Killed Yondu - Guardians Of The Galaxy
By the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, Yondu had completed his arc from outlaw and enemy of the Guardians to being a fully fledged member of the team himself.
At the end of his second appearance in the MCU, after the team defeated Ego, Yondu sacrificed himself to save the life of his adoptive son, Peter. This moment, and the funeral at the very end of the movie, was one of the most emotional moments in the franchise, but Yondu was almost killed off before ever having a chance to redeem himself.
At the end of the first movie, after Peter Quill promised to turn over the Orb to Yondu, he double crossed his father figure with a toy troll instead of an Infinity Stone. According to James Gunn, there was an early version of the script in which the fake Orb that Quill gave Yondu would have contained one of Rocket's bombs, destroying Yondu and his entire ship.
Not only would this have robbed fans of the character's redemption in Volume 2, there would have been no exploration of his relationship with both Peter and Rocket, two of the biggest themes throughout the sequel.