James Gunn breaks down his approach to deciding which characters get to live or die

Just about anyone familiar with James Gunn’s work on superhero films knows that when it comes to the mortality of the characters he is bringing to life, not everyone is guaranteed to still be drawing breath by the time the credits start rolling. This is all the more apparent for the imminent Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, with its promotional material more or less screaming “this is a finale, people are going to die” from the rooftops.

Barring the comically gory and high-body count opening of 2021’s The Suicide Squad, Gunn recently revealed that character deaths aren’t something he likes to dive into head first on a whim, but when he considers the bigger picture and developing character arcs, sometimes deaths of fan favorite characters are inevitable. 

The director of the upcoming GotG threequel went into detail with Collider about his process of picking, choosing, and agonizing over who needs to meet their demise when in the writer’s room. It turns out, for instance, that in his initial draft for Vol. 2, Yondu wasn’t going to perish, but upon revision, he saw it as a necessary developmental moment for Peter Quill. 

“I would never have killed Yondu just to kill Yondu. It had to be intimately involved with the story, and I didn’t want to kill Yondu. Michael Rooker is one of my very close friends, and I had him surviving in my first draft because I want to work with Rooker again and I wanted to put him in the next movie, and it just came to me that this is what this is about. You know, Peter Quill has to lose this character in his life and Yondu has to sacrifice his life. He has to come through. This is his redemption, and he can only do that by sacrificing his life, so I knew it was the right ending for the story, and I’m always in service to that.”

With the original Groot meeting his demise in the first film, and Yondu dying in the sequel, it’s pretty much guaranteed that at the very least, one of the Guardians will no longer be breathing by the time the credits roll on Gunn’s final entry in the MCU before turning his full attention to DC. Based on what we know, we have a sinking feeling – but please, don’t let it be Rocket – he’s too darn cute and precious.

We’ll find out for ourselves when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 lands in theaters on May 5.