Due in theaters April 12, Zoe Saldana’s next movie is the harrowing immigration drama, “The Absence of Eden,” directed by Marco Perego and starring opposite Garrett Hedlund and Adria Arjona. In the film, Hedlund plays an ICE Agent struggling with the moral dilemmas of border security, and Saldana stars as an undocumented woman fighting to escape a ruthless cartel. In the drama, they eventually cross paths and work together to save an innocent girl’s life (see the trailer below)
Saldana will appear in an upcoming episode of our The Discourse podcast, and we’ll have more from that interview about “The Absence Of Eden” soon. However, host Mike DeAngelo also asked the actress about some of her bigger franchise work in the run-up to its publication.
Of course, at the top of the list is Marvel’s “Guardians Of The Galaxy,” a franchise that seemingly ended with ‘Vol. 3,’ and director James Gunn’s pivot to the head of DC Studios. While a new team was teased at the end of the film, and none of the O.G. team members died—instead seemingly just parked away from the main storyline— there’s a hope that some of the original ‘Guardians’ actors might return.
But much like Dave Bautista’s recent comments about returning as Drax (he said his “journey as the character” is complete), Saldana believes her future as Gamora is over, at least for now. That said, she also stressed how much she loves the Guardians franchise and hopes to see it return one day.
Asked if she was “done” with appearing as Gamora, Salanda basically said yes, though either suggested she could be recast or the character is still out there somewhere.
“I mean, so far, I think that she is [gone for good] for me, but I don’t think Gamora has gone for good,” she explained.
The actress clearly has great affection for the series, too, and hopes that it’ll return one day and she’ll be first in line to buy a ticket.
“I would think it would be a huge loss for Marvel if they didn’t find a way to bring back ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy,’” she said. “It’s just such a fan-favorite group of misfits, you know? And then at the helm, they had a voice like James Gunn’s writing—which is just so marvelous for and very specific for this genre. And it’s so great for this genre as well. So, I would be the first one in the first row to sort of celebrate when the Guardians of the Galaxy come back.”
Unfortunately, our Discourse interviewer didn’t have time to parse what she meant about the “I don’t think Gamora has gone for good” comment, though maybe she’s alluding to the fact that the multiverse will always allow for recasting. But either way, it sounds like her tenure as Gamora is definitely over if she’ll only be watching the series as an audience member.
Asked about another franchise she’s involved in, Paramount’s “Star Trek” series, Saldana said she still has faith we might see a fourth “Star Trek” film (and a writer was just announced last week after we spoke to her).
“I still have hope. I had a wonderful experience through and through and through the three times that I was a part of that team,” she said about her ‘Star Trek’ appearances. “I know that they’re always trying to sort of aim to wrangle everybody together, but I also know that Paramount is working on a new sort of fresh take on ‘Star Trek,’ which I think is such a wonderful franchise that should live for a very long time, whether or not us as the original remake cast can come back. I don’t know, but I certainly hope so.”
While Saldana’s right, two ‘Star Trek’ films are in the works, one featuring her current Enterprise team, another featuring entirely separate characters, but with Paramount having just hired “Flight Attendant” co-creator Steve Yockey to pen what’s said to be a fourth and final “Star Trek 4,” perhaps that film will eventually get made and all the stars will align.
Stay tuned. More from this Discourse interview with Saldana later this week.