Before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 even hits theaters, we know that it won’t be the last time we see Star-Lord, Gamora, and Groot on the big screen.
Now that The Fate of the Furious has driven (pun intended) into theaters, the next major release on the movie docket is pretty much Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 when it arrives on May 5. But, before we start worrying about whether or not we’ll get to see more of them after Vol. 2, director James Gunn has swooped in to save the day.
He made a post to Facebook effectively confirming two things. First, a Vol. 3 of Guardians will exist sometime. Second, he will once again direct and write the movie, as he has with the two other films.
Check it out below:
Well, this week we start the U.S. press junket, before traveling to Europe at the end of the week. Of course I know some…
Posted by James Gunn on Monday, April 17, 2017
Later in the post, he also hints as to when we may see this third installment:
"“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. 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.”"
At this time, we know that Infinity War will drop next year, in 2018, with the fourth Avengers movie that used to be the second part of Infinity War following in 2019. Now, let’s do a little pattern recognition here. The first Guardians dropped in 2014; the second is this year, 2017; simple math suggests that 2020 might be when we see Guardians 3.
Additionally, Avengers 4 has a May 2019 release as of this moment, according to the linked article from Vanity Fair, which means that Guardians 3 can’t take that spot. Marvel likes to release its big movies in May. Why change it now and avoid the summer movie season? That seems especially true considering Gunn’s wording above about “ both old and new Marvel characters into the next ten years and beyond.”
If the Guardians are taking over as some of the major anchors of the Marvel Cinematic Universe instead of just being off in space somewhere and listening to oldies, then it makes even more sense to put them in May.
Additionally, back in 2015, Marvel staked out a May 1 release date for one of three movies that year. Although Gunn didn’t give us any hint of when we might see Guardians Vol. 3, that may very well be the movie we get in May 2020.
Next: 7 Questions for The Last Jedi After the Trailer
What do you think of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Are you excited, or do you have to wait and see how Vol. 2 fares?