According to “MCU,” the depiction of Star-Lord as a wisecracking Han Solo type was Perlman’s idea. Additionally, “MCU” noted that the centralization of Star-Lord’s Walkman, and the film’s inclusion of vintage pop hits, was also Perlman’s idea. In Perlman’s vision, however, it was hits from the ’80s and ’90s. “I had a Walkman growing up,” she said to Inverse, “and the music I had in my draft was Michael Jackson, Guns N’ Roses, and stuff.”
Gunn, however, contradicted that in a 2014 interview with Film Divider, where he said plainly that Perlman’s draft had no Walkman in it. It was Gunn who turned the Walkman into a totem for Star-Lord, explaining that the cassette inside was a gift from his dying mother. The playlist heard in “Guardians” was Gunn’s doing. Although Gunn and Perlman never directly collaborated on a draft, one can see that the final film is a blend of two strong, creative minds. Perlman came up with the ideas, and Gunn reworked them to be his own. “Guardians of the Galaxy” might have been brought over the finish line by Gunn, but Perlman was right to fight for credit, as the film seems to be mostly made of her DNA.
On a personal (and self-indulgent note), the author of this article once — just as an idle creative exercise — wrote a screenplay treatment for the ultra-obscure MarvelUK character Motormouth (this was around 2012) and actually mailed the treatment to the Marvel writers’ room. In his treatment, Motormouth, a sassy 17-year-old British punker, was never without her Walkman and constantly put on punk hits to accentuate her everyday life.
But I’m not making claims about anything, of course.