Marvel Studios have loosely dated Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for 2023, which should hopefully indicate that production on James Gunn’s cosmic threequel is set to kick off before the end of the year. It’ll be interesting to see if Thor: Love and Thunder ends up having a bearing on the direction of the plot, too, with the entire gang of intergalactic misfits stopping by for the Odinson’s fourth solo outing.
By the time the movie arrives, six years will have passed since Vol. 2, which is a lifetime in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the interim, Gunn was fired from the project after some questionable tweets from a decade ago resurfaced, which led to him receiving the unanimous backing of both his cast and the fanbase before Disney relented and gave him his job back, but not before he’d jumped ship to the DCEU and signed on to helm The Suicide Squad.
The filmmaker’s association with the rival franchise has lasted longer than even he’d expected, too, with John Cena’s HBO Max spinoff Peacemaker now shooting after Gunn admitted he only wrote it as something fun to do during his downtime in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. And in a recent exchange with a fan on social media, the 54 year-old also promised an emotional roller coaster for the audience after revealing that he’d cried a lot during the writing process of Vol. 3.
No clue. But I know I cried a lot while writing it.
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 5, 2021
Gunn has made it pretty clear that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is going to mark his final involvement with the characters, so it could be the end of the line for the current roster. And as one of the MCU’s most popular standalone franchises, expectations are high that Star-Lord and the gang will deliver the goods for the third and probably final time.
