12 Years After It Began, The MCU’s Most Underrated Trilogy Is More Important Than Ever
12 years after the first film in the series debuted, the MCU's most underrated trilogy looks more important than ever as of a result of its significance in the wider world of superhero movies. Over the years, the MCU timeline has featured an impressive range of trilogies, demonstrating the franchise's longevity and also its commitment to fleshing out the lives and on-screen stories of a broad assortment of Marvel characters.
Every MCU trilogy has had its fans, of course, but some have gotten more attention in the big scheme of things than others. For example, Spider-Man's MCU trilogy effectively changed the entire universe for good thanks to Doctor Strange's spells in it causing everyone to forget Spider-Man is Peter Parker, the initial Captain America trilogy included what was effectively an Avengers movie via Captain America: Civil War, and Deadpool & Wolverine made the Deadpool trilogy retroactively part of the MCU multiverse.
It's impossible to find an MCU trilogy without some wider significance when it comes to the superhero landscape on-screen today - but, somewhat paradoxically, one of the most often forgotten about trilogies when conversations about the MCU's series come up is also the most important for the wider world of superherodom in some very key ways.
The Guardians of The Galaxy Trilogy Helped Kick Off The DC Universe
The 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy movie and the subsequent trilogy it spawned have some clear significance for the superhero space for some readily apparent reasons, having expanded the MCU's galactic mythos, introduced a key superhero team, and delved into the Infinity Stones and Thanos in a way that would become increasingly important later on.
However, perhaps the most important thing the trilogy did, somewhat ironically, isn't to do with the MCU at all. Instead, the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy's perhaps most crucial move from a long-term perspective was establishing director James Gunn's capacity for creating engaging superhero stories, and being able to handle a wide range of eccentric characters in a way that makes them feel realistic and relatable.
While there's a chance Gunn would have become the co-CEO of DC Studios alongside Peter Safran even without the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, it's also easy to see how the films helped pave the way for this possibility, and gave James Gunn the experience that would go on to contribute to Superman's 2025 success as the first film in the DCU.
The Guardians Of The Galaxy Trilogy's MCU Importance Is Still Clear Over A Decade After The First Film
The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy going forth to help make an entire other superhero cinematic universe is of course something that can't really be overstated in terms of how significant it makes the series for the superhero genre more broadly speaking. That said, even if this hadn't happened, the films are still of crucial importance to the wider superhero sphere because of what they did for the MCU itself.
The original Guardians of the Galaxy was key in terms of fleshing out Thanos at a point wherein we still knew extremely little about him, and detailing his story connection to the Infinity Stones, setting up some of the first signs of what would eventually become the plot of the MCU's biggest success stories in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy also provided a master class of sorts in terms of how to execute a superhero team trilogy, as the MCU movies manage to balance detailing the individual arcs of each member of the group alongside the wider arc of the team itself, which is one of the hardest things for films centered around superhero teams and factions to pull off, especially when it comes to doing so in a way that endears audiences to everyone involved.