Home Movies

James Gunn Says He Wasn’t Forced To Connect Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 To The MCU

Other than the presence of an Infinity Stone as the driving force behind the first film and a cameo from Josh Brolin's Thanos, James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise hasn't provided a huge amount of connective tissue to the wider world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least until Star-Lord and the gang showed up across the Infinity War and Endgame double header.

Guardians-of-the-Galaxy-2-poster

Other than the presence of an Infinity Stone as the driving force behind the first film and a cameo from Josh Brolin’s Thanos, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise hasn’t provided a huge amount of connective tissue to the wider world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, at least until Star-Lord and the gang showed up across the Infinity War and Endgame double header.

Recommended Videos

The team’s next outing will come in Thor: Love and Thunder, which hits theaters next May, by which point Gunn’s Vol. 3 will be deep into production. We know for a fact it’ll mark Dave Bautista’s last outing as Drax the Destroyer, and the writer/director is keeping his cards close to the chest about his own future, but previously revealed he had no plans in place for a fourth installment.

In a new interview, the filmmaker admitted that while he’s always kept into the loop about major story development that affect the entire MCU, he hasn’t been asked or told by the higher ups to include anything in his script for Vol. 3, which he wouldn’t appear to be too comfortable with anyway.

“The only time they ever asked me was on the first movie with Thanos, putting Thanos in there. Which they wanted me to do. But besides that they’ve never done that. I have to pay attention to things that happen, which they did talk to me about, the stuff with Gamora and things like that. I know that the characters have been through certain things, so I have to deal with that stuff. But for the most part, they never once asked me to put anything in the script for Vol. 3 to set up anything in the future. Nor would I do it, frankly, it’s not really my thing.”

Taika Waititi’s Love and Thunder could help set the stage for where we find the titular band of dysfunctional cosmic heroes when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opens, while the Disney Plus Holiday Special has been confirmed as official canon and will premiere on the streaming service months before the movie’s May 5th, 2023 debut. That should give us a good indication of where things could be headed, and fans can’t wait to see the makeshift family get their long-awaited third standalone adventure, having been waiting since the summer of 2017 to see it happen.