James Gunn gives update on Guardians of the Galaxy 3, says script changed “very little” after he left

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
(Image credit: Disney/Marvel)

James Gunn may be busy working on The Suicide Squad and the Peacemaker spin-off HBO Max TV show, which is set to start filming soon, but Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is also moving ahead. Gunn wrote and directed Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but when some old tweets of his resurfaced, was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Gunn was reinstated relatively soon after, however – but not before joining The Suicide Squad as director.

Now, Gunn is in Canada, undergoing a two week quarantine before Peacemaker begins filming. On Twitter, and reported by Comic Book, Gunn answered some questions about how Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is getting on.

“Script is written and most of the production heads have been hired”, Gunn revealed.

As for whether the script had changed since Gunn’s departure, Gunn answered: “No very little.”

He also suggested that the script may change a bit as work continues: "I’m ALWAYS tweaking the script for artistic reasons – and will continue to do so – but nothing else." 

Interestingly, he revealed that the only thing he's ever needed to add into his Marvel scripts to fit with the larger MCU was Thanos in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie: "Never have ever had to add anything besides Thanos in Vol 1."

Gunn previously tweeted about the script for the threequel back in June 2018, captioning an image of the script with “Every bit of my heart.”

It seems we can expect an emotional third instalment, then – and star Karen Gillen, who plays Nebula, commented last year to THR: “I’ve read Vol. 3 and I think it’s the best of the trilogy. I know that we’re all really excited to have James Gunn back as our fearless leader. So we’re all just really looking forward to getting back together.”

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 doesn’t currently have a release date, but we can probably expect to see it sometime in 2022. Gunn has already confirmed that his work on Peacemaker hasn’t delayed the movie, saying on Twitter: "I’m doing #Peacemaker in the time always allotted between #TheSuicideSquad & #GotGVol3. Normally I would have been taking more of a break in this space but it’s Covid, I’m stuck at home, so I wrote a TV series."

Until we see the Guardians on the big screen again, check out everything we know about Marvel phase 4 so far.

Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.