Quickfire Q&A: James Gunn at Guardians of the Galaxy premiere

Guardians of the Galaxy is the vision of director James Gunn who finds an incredible balance between action and humour to create the summer's most impressive blockbuster.

With the film featuring a wide cast of actors - including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Benicio Del Toro, Glenn Close, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and more - the skilled writer and director does the impossible: he made a film that doesn't feel overcrowded despite all the A-listers on screen.

Joined by a raccoon (named Oreo) on the red carpet of the European premiere in London's Leicester Square, the filmmaker took a few minutes to answer some quick questions.

Guardians of the Galaxy is an awesome action flick with a great balance of peril and rib cracking humour. Was it hard to prevent everyone laughing the‎ whole time when you made it?

We laughed a lot! We screwed up a lot - including me. I screwe‎d up a lot of takes. Chris Pratt screwed up a lot of takes. I think the only person who didn't screw up takes was my brother, Sean, who played Rocket on set and he was very professional.

There are a few CGI characters in the film (a CGI raccoon called Rocket and a living tree called Groot), but did you have actual people playing the roles so the other actors could have a focal point?

My brother, Sean, played Rocket and a lot of the facial expressions you see on that character were taken directly from my brother.

How does he feel about Bradley Cooper stealing all his credit?

He loves it! My brother actually also plays Kraglin in the movie so he had another role. Bradley has been the most generous ‎guy of all. Half of his interviews on the red carpet are about Sean because they worked in collaboration to create this character. We also worked in collaboration with a company called Framestore to develop this character with the CGI, so there are a lot of people who made this character come to life.

Why do you think it's the right time for the Guardians to enter the Marvel universe?

You‎ know, I think it is the right time for this movie in general. I think there are a lot of movies out there that are so brooding and so dark and sometimes there is this layer of darkness over a movie to make up for the fact that there is no character or story. Other movies are out there and it's an endless string of explosions and action sequences with no characters or love in between. This is a movie that is first and foremost about the characters and their relationships. It should work if it was an independent movie, but we added space battles and all the other stuff.

How did you craft the story when there are so many characters to juggle?

It really is about balance and making sure all the characters have a beginning a middle and an end and really taking care and loving each of them and making sure when you right the screenplay so that you can read the script and cross out the character's name and you can see how they are speaking and you know exactly who that character is just by the way they speak.

There are infinity stones in this film and Thanos as well - how heavily will Guardians of the Galaxy influence future instalments in the Marvel cinematic universe?

We have The Collector come out and tell you everything about the infinity stones. Hopefully The Collector is telling the truth, he's not the most trustworthy guy in the universe, but what the stuff that Benicio, the Collector, says is really important to the rest of the Marvel universe.

How do you think the Guardians will fit in to an Avengers film?

We will have to see. Maybe it will be a couple of Guardians that will meet up with them one day. Maybe more... I don't know. We will need to figure it out.

Will you direct Guardians 2?

If there is a sequel, I will come! I will direct the sequel if there is a sequel.