If you are planning on going to the movies this weekend, one candidate that has probably caught your attention is Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Guardians is bringing some heavy hitters to the plate, including: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Djimon Hounsou, Glenn Close, John C. Reilly, Dave Bautista, and Benicio Del Toro.

I, for one, am super excited to see Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend. In fact, its August 1^st release date this Friday has been on my calendar since it was first announced in 2013. I’ve been a huge fan of the Marvel movies so far, specifically the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU for short.

Why is Guardians of the Galaxy such a big deal? At first glance, this movie appears to be nothing more than a one-off, family friendly space bound action movie that Marvel is pitching to milk audiences during the one year lull between Captain American: Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron coming out May 2015.

If you thought that, then you’d be dead on. Except for the first part, Guardians of the Galaxy is not a one-off movie at all. For those of you going “huh?”, gather ‘round the camp fire children.

What makes GOTG such a big deal is that this is the first new Marvel franchise to be introduced to the MCU since Captain America in 2011. Still confused?

Fine, I’ll spoil it. Marvel plans on merging Guardians of the Galaxy with the Avengers! That’s right. We can expect to eventually see Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America share the silver screen with the Guardians in the same movie. Is that epic or what? Amazingly enough, only fan boys and comic-con aficionados seem to have caught on to this.

Are you thinking “So what?” Okay, let me back track a little. It was a big deal when Marvel slipped audiences a bunch of Easter eggs, dropping a bunch of cross-movie hints in each of the phase 1 movies.

It was an even bigger deal when Marvel finally combined the four movie franchises into the Avengers (2012).

Marvel continued to pick up the pace with Iron Man, Thor and Captain America sequels.

Now, Marvel intends to mix a fifth ingredient into their tried and tested, beloved recipe. Will the new concoction have audiences drooling for seconds and a doggy-bag, or have them saying “too much salt” ?

And that is why Guardians of the Galaxy is such a big deal. Marvel is using Guardians as a litmus test for other movies they hope to produce. Not only will a good reception to Guardians affect its own sequel, it will affect the direction Marvel takes for the Avengers, and whether or not they decide to release other comic book characters like Dr. Strange, Blank Panther and Ant Man.

Are audiences going to welcome a new comer, or are they content with the Big 4?

We’ll find out tomorrow when Guardians of the Galaxy opens in theaters nationwide. My bet is Marvel has done their homework. After all, Marvel has movies planned all the way to 2028. No, that wasn’t a typo. 14 years from now, kids that aren’t even born then are going to be enjoying Marvel movies in theaters.

Keep posted! I will be in line to see Guardians opening day, and posting my review shortly after!