James Gunn is currently busy shooting the DC Extended Universe supervillain team-up The Suicide Squad, but in a break from production the director took part in a recent fan Q&A where he addressed his upcoming return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, confirming that Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame have not impacted his original plans for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
“The script will change because my scripts always keep changing up until the moment I shoot them,” said Gunn when asked if he’d be making any changes to his script for Guardians Vol. 3 following his firing from the project and subsequent rehiring. “But it won’t change according to anything from Endgame, because I already knew what was in that script before I wrote Guardians 3.”
Assuming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 takes place shortly after Endgame, then almost ten years will have passed in universe between Guardians Vol. 2, which is set in 2014. During that time, we’ve seen the original Gamora sacrificed by Thanos, while the rest of the Guardians – save for Rocket (and Nebula) – were snapped out of existence for five years. And of course, we now have a still-officially-villainous-but-conflicted-and-confused pre-Guardians Gamora running around, having jumped forward in time with Thanos and company for Endgame’s climactic battle, only to find herself trapped in the “present”.
The Guardians also have an extra crew member in Thor, although with Thor: Love and Thunder set to arrive before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, then presumably the God of Thunder won’t be sticking around with Star-Lord and company for long.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is currently without a release date, but isn’t expected to arrive until 2022 at the earliest. The Suicide Squad meanwhile is set for release on August 6th 2021.