Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will mark the end of James Gunn's time in the MCU, though he's already made the leap to the DCU and taken charge of DC Studios alongside Peter Safran.
Despite that, Gunn is still putting the finishing touches to his threequel and tells Entertainment Weekly that he wants to make sure this is one trilogy that ends in style. "The amount of good third episodes in a trilogy," he laughs, "I can count them on one hand."
"Basically, there's the Before Sunrise series. Lord of the Rings. Maybe Spider-Man. But there's just not too many good third ones. This is the big one," the filmmaker adds. "This is where things really happen. This is where we get to know the truth about who these characters are, and we face the biggest stakes."
After Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we're expecting something special, and the teaser trailer pointed to the movie being particularly emotional.
Those moments will include Star-Lord's reunion with the Gamora Variant introduced in Avengers: Endgame, and you can see them side-by-side in the newly released still below.
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, our beloved band of misfits are looking a bit different these days. Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him to defend the universe along with protecting one of their own. 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 Saldana, 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.