While James Gunn may be busy building the revamped DC Universe; he still has a job left to do for the rival Marvel Studios. Gunn’s seemingly final venture in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, is awaiting release this May. It is expected to be a significant entry in the franchise given that it would be the eponymous team’s final outing in the continuity. The threequel will follow up on the prologue set by the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, taking Star-Lord and his team members on a new cosmic adventure, pitting them against two new adversaries.
Talking about his upcoming film, Gunn spoke about the film’s potential run-time. Shadowing the new update about the film, he answered a fan question about the film’s runtime. While not confirming it outright, the director stated that the film is around that long. However, he further promised that the film’s runtime would be wholly justified given that each character has their own character arc.
This confirms that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be longer than its predecessors. While the sequel was set at two hours and 17 Minutes, the first film in the trilogy was just two hours and two minutes long. If the run-time is correct, the Guardians threequel will tie with Infinity War for the fourth-longest MCU film of all time.
Further, conversing with another fan, Gunn defended his film’s length and showed excitement while answering an equally enthusiastic fan who was in for the whole experience.
Runtime is an essential factor in the MCU. Marvel Studios is quite vigilant about the franchise’s movies’ length. The studio intends to ensure that its movies are entirely entertaining and do not contain, in Gunn’s words, ‘fat’ content. Until now, Avengers: Endgame is the longest film in the entire series, clocking at three hours and one minute.
Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a defining film for the franchise as it would be the last film to feature the original team as introduced in the first Guardians movie. This fact entails that either the threequel would retire, or even kill off some important characters.
The film’s first trailer has already hinted at a possible conflict the Guardians would encounter with the High Evolutionary, a sociopathic scientist who created and forcefully experimented on Rocket before the first movie’s events. However, Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock could become the film’s cynosure. The artificial being Ayesha created during the culmination of Vol. 2 will transition into an anti-hero and eventually a hero later on, just like his comic book counterpart. If that’s not enough, Star-Lord must also deal with the loss of Gamora as he encounters her old version, who doesn’t recognize him.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 releases May 5, 2023.
