James Gunn teases ‘dark’ conclusion to Guardians of the Galaxy in Vol 3: ‘I want to give people the wrap-up they deserve’

Gunn added that he just wants to be “true to the characters, the story” and “give people the wrap-up that they deserve for the story. That’s always a little bit scary; I’m doing my best.” He also said that he is perfectly aware that most third films in trilogies “suck” but not always.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 has had a difficult road towards production. Gunn was fired from the Guardians franchise and any other Disney property by the studio in 2018.

The reason was the resurfacing of his old tweets. The tweets had jokes about things like rape and paedophilia. Hours after US conservatives brought those tweets to light, Disney ended its association with him.

“The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him,” Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn had said in a statement.

He was reinstated the following year. But before that, he had signed The Suicide Squad at rival Warner Bros. The film releases in 2021 to rave reviews. Gunn has already made a Suicide Squad TV spinoff, Peacemaker, whose season 1 episodes stream weekly on HBO Max.

Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone will reprise their old roles in Vol 3. Will Poulter joins the MCU as fan-favourite of comic readers — Adam Warlock.

The last we saw Guardians was at the end of Avengers: Endgame. They were going to find Gamora. Although the present Gamora is dead after she was thrown to her death off a cliff by a tearful Thanos on Vormir to acquire the Soul Stone in Avengers: Infinity War, we saw a past version of her coming back to 2023 with (past) Thanos and his army to invade the Avengers HQ.

She, however, was convinced by the current Nebula to turn against their father. After Thanos was snapped out of existence by Tony Stark, many wondered if Gamora also disappeared with him. The film did not make it clear either way, but we did see Peter Quill, other Guardians and Thor heading out to search for her aboard the Benetar. A deleted scene from the movie later confirmed that Gamora did survive the snap and escaped to an unknown location.

The Guardians will also appear in the fourth Thor movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, due for release in July.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is scheduled to be released on May 5, 2023.