Even though Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is still years away from release, it looks like director James Gunn is making preliminary plans for his next Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. While he’s still hard at work on the sequel to 2016’s Suicide Squad, Gunn has kept fans updated on how the next Guardians film is shaping up. Last month, he confirmed it’ll take place after the events of Avengers: Endgame, and explained his script was written well before Endgame‘s release, which means the story he laid out won’t be drastically impacted by the Avengers’ latest outing.
Unfortunately, we still don’t know whether or not Thor will be joining the Guardians, but we recently caught wind of another casting tidbit. In the past, we’ve reported that Mark Hamill was being eyed for the role of High Evolutionary, who, within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is thought to be the creator of Rocket Raccoon. Now, Hamill hasn’t been confirmed to be on the cast list just yet, but sources close to WGTC – the same ones who said Disney was developing a Beauty and the Beast spinoff for Gaston and that Marvel was doing a She-Hulk show, both of which are now confirmed – have told us that none other than Robert De Niro is being eyed for the role, in the event that Hamill can’t/won’t do it. And we imagine he’s not the only other actor that Marvel is considering.
While De Niro recently appeared in DC’s Joker, he’s yet to make the jump over to the MCU. In fact, just a few months ago, he publicly slammed the franchise’s de-aging effects for being a tad too cartoony. Still, it would be interesting to see one of Hollywood’s most prolific and talented actors playing a villain in a Marvel movie.
Of course, the studio can always change direction before production gets off the ground, but the two names that we’re hearing are being eyed right now for High Evolutionary are Hamill and De Niro and we’ll be sure to keep you updated should Gunn and co. manage to lock either of them down for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.Â
