James Gunn reveals the cut Guardians of the Galaxy line he wants to "George Lucas" back into the movie

Every movie gets cut down. There are fleeting exceptions and almost none at a big-budget level. That's just the nature of turning the written word into a film – not everything works. Unfortunately, there's also stuff that does work that also gets cut due to studio input, and Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn remains vexed by a certain deleted scene from his Marvel movie.

Writing on Twitter, Gunn revealed that on two occasions in his career a studio has forced him to remove something from a film that he was apprehensive about keeping. "Once in [horror movie] Slither and once in Guardians Vol. 1, I took out something (two shots in Slither, one line in Vol. 1) that I really didn't want to," he wrote. "But I did that as a way to compromise, because the studios had been so good at letting me 'get my way.'"

Replying to further comments, Gunn revealed which line from Guardians was removed. The scene starts: "Quill: I come from a planet of outlaws, Billy the Kid, Bonnie & Clyde, John Stamos. 

"Drax: Sounds like a place that I would like to visit."

"Quill: Cool."

"Drax: And kill many people there."

End scene. The moment may be minor, but the joke being cut has obviously sat with Gunn for some time. He added in a follow-up message: "I so wanna George Lucas it back in I can't tell you." Lucas famously altered the Star Wars movies post-release, and continued to do so until Disney bought LucasFilm, with the altered versions of Star Wars appearing now on Disney Plus.

Meanwhile, Gunn has been busy working on The Suicide Squad for DC, which will be followed soon after by Guardians of the Galaxy 3, part of Marvel Phase 4.