Be warned: mild spoilers relating to the overall plot of GOTG Vol. 3 from this point on.
Though everyone gets their time to shine, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is primarily Rocket's story, as the wise-cracking racoon's tragic origins are revealed through a series of flashbacks while his friends attempt to save his life in the present.
Director James Gunn has previously said that he considers Rocket to be the "secret protagonist" of the trilogy, and actually had some ideas for the character's backstory before he even began to focus on developing the first movie's plot.
"I thought about, ‘Well, okay, if there was a talking space raccoon, how would he have come to exist?’ And as I mused upon it, I started thinking about how this was the saddest creature in the universe, and that was actually the seed to me for the entire Guardians trilogy," the filmmaker explained to i09. "That was my way into it, this underpinning of just isolation and sadness, and all of these characters are isolated and sad. So I knew what Rocket’s backstory was from that moment before I had come up with the rest of that stuff for Vol. 1. It was the first thing I came up with.”
Gunn went on to reveal that the Vol. 3's story almost played out in the Rocket and Groot spin-off short that was in the very early stages of development a few years back.
“I always thought it was a third movie thing because I thought we had to tell Peter Quill’s story first and then get into Rocket’s story. I think the only question was, was it going to be a Rocket and Groot movie or was it going to be Guardians 3, because initially, I was going to do it as Rocket and Groot.”
A Rocket and Groot spin-off is something a lot of fans would still like to see, but if it ever were to happen, it would most likely be with another director at the helm.
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"In Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 our beloved band of misfits are settling into life on Knowhere. But it isn’t long before their lives are upended by the echoes of Rocket’s turbulent past." "Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him on a dangerous mission to save Rocket’s life—a mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them."
Gunn writes and directs Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, featuring Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, and Maria Bakalova. Kevin Feige is the producer and Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Nikolas Korda, Simon Hatt, and Sara Smith serve as executive producers.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 arrives in theaters on May 5, 2023.