Out and about on the press tour for Captain Marvel, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has confirmed that despite James Gunn’s departure from the director’s chair on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, his screenplay is still going to be used for the now postponed threequel.
However, despite reports that Gunn had previously been working alongside Feige as “cosmic consultant” to help oversee the expansion of that side of the MCU, it seems that Guardians Vol. 3 will be as far as his influence goes when it comes to Phase Four.
“His influence was Guardians,” said Feige in an interview with CinemaBlend. “It was Guardians. It was his input on Guardians and the Avengers films, as you’ve seen in Infinity War, and on the Guardians 3 script, which we’re still using. So you’ll see that influence. I think online, sort of the notion of ‘architect across multiple cosmic things’ was slightly blown out of proportion.”
The confirmation that Marvel still intends on using his script is sure to be pleasing to Gunn’s fans (and to Dave Bautista, who said he’d ask for his Marvel release if that wasn’t the cast). However, one would have to assume that when a new director is found they may want to put their own stamp on the material, so Gunn’s Guardians Vol. 3 could well become another Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man.
Originally published February 24, 2019. Updated February 25, 2019.
