Although Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has only just started hitting theaters worldwide, director James Gunn and the folks over at Marvel Studios are already looking to the future of the franchise.
Thanks to a recent announcement from Gunn, it’s publicly known that he’ll be returning to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but past that point, the Guardians’ place in the MCU is more unknown. However, in a recent interview the Toronto Sun, Gunn revealed what could become of the beloved franchise in a post-Avengers: Infinity War and Guardians Vol. 3 world.
While speaking about the series, the director said, “I think the first three movies tell a single story and that story is pretty simple. I think that there could be a Guardians Vol. 4, but it would not be the same. It would not be the same group… basically the story of this group ends with Vol. 3.”
He continued, “I will be helping to plant the seeds that will lead to the next decade. I’m helping to decide what projects we’ll be pursuing outside of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3… and what the next cosmic characters we will focus on.”
Gunn has said in the past that his three Guardians movies will “tell one story,” so the most noteworthy part of his comment is that our current Guardians, including Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon and Groot may be swapped out if a fourth installment were to happen. Of course, the MCU is large and features several corners that have yet to be explored, so there would be plenty of characters to keep the superhero team alive, but they’d obviously have massive shoes to fill.
For now, fans are certainly lucky to have Vol. 2 and 3 and plenty more memorable journeys through space with everybody’s favorite ragtag group of superheroes to look forward to.
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Set to the backdrop of ‘Awesome Mixtape #2,’ Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel cinematic universe continues to expand.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is scheduled for release on April 28th 2017 in the UK and on May 5th in the States, with director James Gunn reuniting with returning cast members Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), Vin Diesel (Groot), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Michael Rooker (Yondu), Glenn Close (Nova Prime), Sean Gunn (Kraglin) and Laura Haddock (Meredith Quill) alongside new additions Pom Klementieff (Oldboy) as Mantis, Elizabeth Debicki (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) as Ayesha, Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight) as Ego the Living Planet, Chris Sullivan (The Drop) as Taserface, Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy) as Tulik, Sylvester Stallone (Creed) as Stakar and Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville) in an as-yet-unrevealed role.
Originally published April 27, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
