Gina Carano Almost Played A Fan-Favorite Marvel Character
When Guardians of the Galaxy was first getting off the ground in 2013, there were all kinds of casting rumors for practically every team member. Who the heck would play Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot? A little slower to come around was who would play Gamora. And at the time, Marvel was looking to go in a very different direction, considering Gina Carano, Olivia Wilde, and Adrianne Palicki to possibly play the role.
None of those talents made the cut seeing as how the Gamora role eventually went to Zoe Saldana. But easily the most interesting on the list was Gina Carano, especially considering how things ended up turning out for her with Disney.
It’s easy to see why Gina Carano would have been near the top of the casting list at the time. She was coming off a starring role in Haywire, which established her as someone with action acting chops. Plus, she had a role in Fast & Furious 6.
Gina Carano’s star was, most definitely, on the rise after shifting away from her fighting career. Marvel choosing to go this direction would, at the time, have made a ton of sense. The Guardians of the Galaxy movie was about some lesser-known characters with a decidedly different tone than the rest of the franchise to that point.
Did Marvel breathe a sigh of relief that they didn’t go with Gina Carano as Gamora? Probably not until later. First Disney cast her in their other major franchise when she got the Cara Dune role in The Mandalorian. All was going well, and she was even headed for her own series, until a string of social media posts in 2021 ended up with her Star Wars ouster.
Not to say this would have turned out the same way, but playing the Gamora role in Marvel stood to have a considerably higher profile. Ultimately, we’ll never know just how close Gina Carano came to getting this role. Zoe Saldana was much more established at the time, having been in Star Trek and Avatar while also leading action films like Colombiana. She represented the safer choice by many degrees.
But Gina Carano as Gamora? It could have worked for sure. She would have been a tougher version of the character, maybe more of a fighter through and through. Would the love connection been as strong with Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill/ Star-Lord? Maybe that one is a little tougher to see, but it sure represents a Marvel sliding doors moment.
