James Gunn is heading back to the Guardians Of The Galaxy universe to write and direct the third installment of the franchise.
The filmmaker directed and wrote the first two movies, 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and on Monday (17Apr17) he announced he will return for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
In a Facebook post, Gunn accepts he’ll be asked about the third film while promoting the second, so he announced the news himself. The director decided to return to the franchise because of his love for the characters.
“Before I was able to honestly answer this, I needed to know it was, in my heart, what I truly felt called to do…,” he writes. “I have never made choices in my career based on anything other than passion and love for the stories and characters, and I didn’t want to start now.”
“In the end, my love for Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord, Yondu, Mantis, Drax, and Nebula – and some of the other forthcoming heroes – goes deeper than you guys can possibly imagine, and I feel they have more adventures to go on and things to learn about themselves and the wonderful and sometimes terrifying universe we all inhabit,” he adds. “And, like in both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, we will work on creating the story that goes beyond what you expect…”
The movie will take place after 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, which is also under the Marvel Comics Universe, and the third installment will set up the next 10 years of storytelling for the company.
“Much of what’s happened in the MCU for the past ten or so years has been leading, in a big way, to the Avengers’ Infinity War,” he continues. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will happen after all that. It will conclude the story of this iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and help catapult both old and new Marvel characters into the next ten years and beyond.”
Gunn is also hoping he can expand the franchise by creating a Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special like the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special TV musical.
“I talk about this all the time with (president of Marvel Studios) Kevin Feige. We both find the idea fun and funny,” he wrote on Twitter in response to a fan’s question about the possibility of developing the special.
“I LOVED the Star Wars Holiday special as a kid. It’d be fun to do one the way I remember it as opposed to the way it actually is,” he added.
