The fate of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s heroes is decidedly up in the air following the climax of Avengers: Infinity War — but the future of the franchise beckons, and the landscape post-Avengers 4 is taking shape. One film we’ve always known is yet to come is a third Guardians of the Galaxy entry, and writer-director James Gunn has shared an update on the project’s progress.
The filmmaker appears to have finished the script, posting a shot of the title page (yes, it looks like the naming convention is continuing with Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3), simply captioned: “Every bit of my heart.”
The screenplay update was also confirmed by Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige, who also indicated that the third Guardians film is set to shoot in 2019. Speaking to Collider, he said: “James [Gunn] has delivered a draft and we begin official pre-production on that very, very soon. It’ll be shooting early next year. Captain Marvel finishes in about two weeks, Spider-Man starts in about two weeks, and then Guardians 3 will start early next year.”
It was recently revealed that the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming will be titled Spider-Man: Far From Home — and (MAJOR INFINITY WAR SPOILER WARNING) like Spidey, the Guardians are mostly dust at the hands of Thanos, Rocket excepted. It’s currently unknown whether Guardians 3 will be set before Infinity War — the first two films take place within weeks of each other, leaving a few years' gap before Thanos’ arrival. If it’s set after Infinity War and Avengers 4, it remains to be seen which of the Guardians will still be accounted for in Phase 4 of the MCU — while the likes of Star Lord and Drax are extremely likely to return, the status of Gamora will be one to keep an eye on.
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