A decade ago, no one would have expected a sentient tree and a heavily armed, talking raccoon to become two of Hollywood’s most popular superheroes. TwoGuardians of the Galaxymovies later, that’s the world we’re living in — withGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3expected to hit theaters in 2022.
Marvel’s 2014 cosmic adventureGuardians of the Galaxyand its 2017 sequel,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, were led by actor Chris Pratt’s charismatic thief Peter Quill and featured Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, and Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket Raccoon. The team was later joined by Karen Gillan as Nebula and Pom Klementieff as Mantis. Here’s everything we know aboutGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Production begins
Production forGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3began on July 16, 2025, according to James Gunn on Twitter. He also added thatPeacemakeractor Chukwudi Iwuji has joined the cast in a role “most every big-name actor in Hollywood wanted.”
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1457792078050590720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Gunn’s last ride
In an interview withEntertainment Tonight, director James Gunn saidGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3will be his last Guardians movie. Does that spell the end of the franchise? No one can say for sure, but it doesn’t necessarily mean Gunnwon’tcontinue working within the MCU. “The last Marvel project, who knows, but I see it as my last Guardians movie,” Gunn said. “I’m a guy who never says never because I’ve seen too many people say ‘never’ and be pulled back into the fray, so I wouldn’t say that. But I see it as being my last Guardians movie.”
Better watch the holiday special
Speaking withCollider, James Gunn said that fans will have to watch theGuardians of the Galaxy Holiday Specialif they want to fully understand what’s happening inGuardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3. “It’s in-canon, it’s about the Guardians, you’re gonna learn stuff that you need to learn beforeVolume 3, and it’s great, I’m really happy with it,” he said.
Storyboarding commences
Fresh off wrappingThe Suicide Squad, James Gunn announced on Twitter that he’s storyboardingGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, suggesting he’s underway on his next massive project.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1401990021612142592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The end of Drax?
In an interview withDigital Spy, Dave Bautista stated thatGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3is “probably going to be the end of Drax.” “I don’t think they’re very interested, or it doesn’t fit into the way they have things mapped out,” he said. “But other than that, no. I mean, as far as my obligations, I’ve gotGuardians 3, and that’s probably going to be the end of Drax.”
Later, Bautista doubled down, saying definitively thatVol. 3will be his last time portraying Drax.
Drax isn’t going anywhere. He just won’t be played by this dude! 🤷🏻♂️by the time G3 comes out I’ll be 54 yrs old for gods sake! 😱 im expecting everything to start sagging any second now. 😂https://t.co/eRJR6ZPtE2
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista)July 05, 2025
A Guardians holiday special
Disney revealed at its 2020 Investor Day thatGuardiansdirector James Gunn would also be writing and directingThe Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Specialfor Disney+, due out in 2022. Could this be a tie-in toGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Should we expect to see it in December 2022?
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.@JamesGunnis back to write and direct.
The Original Special is coming to@DisneyPlusin 2022. 🎁 🎧pic.twitter.com/rRkZsoxPgq
— Disney (@Disney)June 15, 2025
Still on track
Despite a rash of big movie productiondelays and release date changes, including several other Marvel releases,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3is still on track to meet its 2022 release date. This news comes via James Gunn’s Twitter:
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1290765808281378816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
That’s fortunate to hear, considering Gunn took to Twitter nearly four months earlier to assuage fans of the same concerns. With so many doubts created in Hollywood by the coronavirus pandemic, Gunn’s reassurances may not count for much, but at least a delay is far from guaranteed.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1249406661745233920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Earth’s music still rules
The Guardians franchise is well known for its awesome soundtracks. Peter Quill’s connection to his birth planet, Earth, is established almost entirely through music, via a mixtape his mother, Meredith Quill, made for him. Meredith Quill, it turns out, has great taste in music. James Gunn curated a master list of songs considered forGuardians of the Galaxy Vols. 1and2and released part of that list on Twitter. Notice that some of these songs have not appeared in the franchise yet, and Gunn hasn’t ruled out using them in the future.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1252333999101325313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Endings and beginnings
First, it was Groot, then Yondu. Soon,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3could have another heartbreaking farewell in the works for audiences.
Responding to a fan’s question on Instagram about rumors that a popular character will die inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Gunn responded, “I can’t remember any comic book film where someone didn’t die!”
While his response in that October 2019 conversation doesn’t offer any clues regarding who will meet their end in the film, it does support previous reports regarding the end of certain characters’ story arcs.
Prior to the events ofAvengers: Infinity WarandAvengers: Endgame, Gunn hinted that the third installment ofGuardians of the Galaxycould bring an end to some key elements of the franchise while kick-starting a new chapter for the ragtag team.
“Much of what’s happened in the MCU for the past 10 or so years has been leading, in a big way, to the Avengers’ Infinity War,” wrote Gunn. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3will 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 10 years and beyond.”
Gunn’s cryptic hint at what the future holds for the Guardians of the Galaxy could have a wide range of interpretations, but one thing seems certain: Whatever version of the team continues on afterVol. 3will be very different from the team that was introduced in the 2014 film.
The origins of Rocket Raccoon
Speaking during a Quarantine Watch Party, James Gunn told fans that Rocket Raccoon’s origins will play “a big part of what’s happening” inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1247696778322792448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1247697728080990208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Combined with previous teases that there may be a major character death inGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3and a shakeup of the team, could Rocket be the ultimate victim? Might he emerge as the leader of the Guardians?
The release date
When will it arrive? We had high hopes that Volume 3 would land in 2019, but a director controversy put the kibosh on our hopes. At Comic-Con International 2019 in July, Marvel Studios finally shared what’s coming in its highly anticipatedfourth phase of films, offering details on a whopping 10 projects for 2020 and 2021, and giving some very intriguing hints as to what the future holds. However, there was very little mention ofGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige did confirm thatBlack Panther 2,Captain Marvel 2, andGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3are on the way, although he didn’t offer any release dates. This leads us to suspect that 2020 is a no-go, and 2021 unlikely as well. 2022 looks like a likely bet at this point.
A post shared by James Gunn (@jamesgunn)
The long delay untilGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3hits theaters stems from director James Gunn also directingThe Suicide Squadreboot(above), from Marvel competitor DC, a project he signed on to while on hiatus from the Guardians franchise.
The director
Eight months after Disneyfired James Gunnover a series of old (and tasteless) social media posts, the company had a change of heart.
Gunn wasreinstated as director ofGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3in March after meeting with Walt Disney Studios president Alan Horn. Gunn will directGuardians of the Galaxy 3from the screenplay that he wrote before his initial dismissal.
Gunn initially made his return forVol. 3official in an April 2017 post onFacebook. The lengthy post was published before the start of the press tour forVol. 2, and Gunn indicated that he wanted to let fans of the franchise be the first to know, rather than simply announcing the news during a press junket interview.
“Yes, I’m returning to write and directGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” wrote Gunn. “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. And, like in bothVol. 1andVol. 2, we will work on creating the story that goes beyond what you expect.”
If you were wondering if this means Gunn is permanently attached to the franchise, however, you may be disappointed. In an April 2020Instagram Q&A, Gunn stated he has no plans to direct a fourth film: “I absolutely never said I wouldn’t do a Vol. 2, as I planned to do a trilogy from the beginning if the first one worked. I have no plans to do a [fourth].”
Gunn fired, then rehired
After directing the first two installments and announcing that he would write and direct the third, Gunn was abruptlyfired fromGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3in July 2018 after political pundits unearthed highly damaging tweets posted by the director almost a decade earlier.
The campaign to convince Disney to remove Gunn — an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump — was led by acontroversial right-wing bloggerand eventually resulted in just that, with the studio’s chairman, Alan Horn, declaring “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.”
Shortly after Gunn’s departure, an open letter was posted onInstagrambyGuardians of the Galaxyactor Chris Pratt, beginning with the statement “We fully support James Gunn,” and ending with the signatures of every member of the franchise’s recurring cast. In the letter, the actors express their belief that — as Gunn stated himself — he is a very different person from the man he was when he made the comments more than a decade earlier.
A post shared by Chris Pratt (@prattprattpratt)
The statement also alludes to the alt-right campaign to paint Gunn as a pedophile due to the content of several jokes he made, with the cast expressing disappointment with “those so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories surrounding him.”
It didn’t take long for Gunn to find a new, comics-inspired film to bring to the screen, however, as he was hired to direct Marvel competitor Warner Bros. Pictures’ pseudo-sequel to the 2016 filmSuicide Squad. (Here’severything we know aboutThe Suicide Squad.)
Less than a year later — and after aprolonged delay in production— Gunn was reinstated as the director ofGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3in March 2019.
More Mantis
It’s widely expected that the core team from 2014’sGuardians of the Galaxywill return forVol. 3, but given how many supporting characters have been introduced across the first two films, it’s anyone’s guess as to which cast members will be brought back for another adventure.
One character that does seem to have been confirmed to return, however, is Mantis — the empathic, antenna-sporting alien inVol. 2. In a May 2017 post on Instagram, Gunn wished Klementieff a happy birthday and looked “forward to spending the next couple of years hanging out with both her and Mantis while makingVol. 3.”
Given the uncertain realities of comic books and the movies inspired by them, even Michael Rooker’s fin-headed mercenary Yondu might return for more action.
