It’s fitting, given Star-Lord’s love of Earth music, that the trajectory of the Guardians Of The Galaxy has ended up mirroring that of classic bands. James Gunn’s unlikely group of cosmic heroes burst into the MCU with a killer debut that changed the game – before facing the task of living up to their own high standard with a bigger, more experimental and emotional follow-up. They’ve found time to collaborate with other heroes in super-groups like the Avengers. And last year’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special was the equivalent of a fun festive EP, sure to become a future staple replayed every winter. Now, we’ve come to the final album – the goodbye record, their Abbey Road. Get ready to press play on Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, another awesome mix of heart, heroics, and colourful chaos. The end of an era begins here.
The new issue of Empire takes an exclusive look at the final outing for this line-up of the Guardians – and Gunn’s final MCU movie – promising a deeply emotional farewell to the bunch of A-holes who changed everything. Inside, we speak to Gunn about his tumultuous few years moving between Marvel and DC, and about why he needed to come back for one last jam session with the Guardians. Plus, we talk to cast members Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Karen Gillan, and Sean Gunn about their loyalty to the filmmaker who brought them all together, and what to expect from the final adventure. Plus, we meet Chukwudi Iwuji and Will Poulter, ready to inject some new blood into the mix as creature-crafting villain the High Evolutionary and much-anticipated super-being Adam Warlock, respectively. All that, and we have tons of never-before-seen images from the film. It’s a real Greatest Hits package.
This month’s newsstand cover sees the classic Guardians line-up back in business, each donning their snazzy new suits – except Gamora…
And our explosive, exclusive subscriber cover sees Rocket Raccoon leap into action in a kinetic blast of colourful graffiti, illustrated for Empire by Mexifunk, aka Orlando Arocena.
All that, plus this issue is packed with other bangers. We take a first look at Aardman’s new short for Star Wars: Visions; we get seriously spooky with Rob Savage’s Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman; we tumble down the rabbit-hole with Ari Aster’s mind-bending new movie Beau Is Afraid; we dive under the sea to check out Disney’s new take on The Little Mermaid; we go long with Bill Hader as he prepares to bid his own farewell to Barry; plus, we get brand new looks at Fast X and Gran Turismo, talk Spider-Punk with Daniel Kaluuya, and dig inside the epic fan campaign to bring back Warrior Nun. It’s so stacked, it’s practically a double album.
Fire up your Zune and strut down to your local newsagent to pick up the issue when it hits the shelves on Thursday 16 April – or become an Empire member now to access the issue in full on launch day. You can also pre-order the issue online now here. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 comes to UK cinemas from 3 May.