Alternate Versions Of Every MCU Movie We Almost Got To See

10. A Totally Standalone Guardians Of The Galaxy

Though Guardians of the Galaxy more-or-less functions fine as a standalone superhero movie, it has undeniable ties to the wider MCU, largely thanks to a few brief appearances by Thanos (Josh Brolin).

These scenes remind the audience that he's The Avengers' grand adversary, while also highlighting his connection to Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan).

However, James Gunn had major reservations about these scenes and almost cut Thanos entirely in order to keep the film unambiguously standalone, but was eventually convinced to keep a small franchise tie-in.

Would It Have Worked?: Definitely. It's a small change all things considered, but few would've turned their noses up at cutting two minutes of Thanos' screen time.

At the same time, it was neat to get another up-close glimpse of the Mad Titan considering the sporadic nature of his appearances at this point, even though he hardly made a dent in the movie.