James Gunn Teases 'Pretty Huge' Roles For These Two Characters In Guardians 3

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is likely one of the most anticipated films of the next several years, and while it won't come out until 2023, its director is already spilling details about it. The filmmaker in question, James Gunn, has been busy these past few years with helming Warner Bros.' "The Suicide Squad" and putting together its highly-anticipated HBO Max spin-off, "Peacemaker," but despite that, he says the "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" script has been done for a while now.

When we last saw the Guardians come together as a team, it was during the climactic battle in "Avengers: Endgame." After retrieving the Infinity Stones scattered across the timeline and resurrecting those lost in the Snap, "Endgame" saw the Avengers and their allies, including the Guardians, engage in a final battle against Thanos. Since then, we haven't heard from many existing Marvel Cinematic Universe characters, as Marvel Studios has largely spent the time since "Endgame" releasing limited series on Disney+ and introducing audiences to new heroes like Shang-Chi.

Fortunately, we now have some sense of what to expect from certain members of the Guardians of the Galaxy in the team's next standalone MCU outing.

Writer-director James Gunn recently took to Twitter to respond to the news that actors Karen Gillan and Pom Klementieff, who play Nebula and Mantis, respectively, both teared up (via Yahoo!) while reading the "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" script. Unsurprisingly, Gunn had a wry quip ready at hand, writing, "Maybe they just got paper cuts."

In a subsequent tweet, the filmmaker maintained his tongue-in-cheek attitude while simultaneously dishing out some new information about the film. "I hope it's not because they thought they had too few lines," Gunn wrote, "because honestly their roles are both pretty huge and it seems greedy." While Gunn is clearly joking, this does appear to confirm that neither Nebula nor Mantis will be relegated to the background in the long-awaited third "Guardians" movie.

In "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," Nebula had a comparatively rich story arc compared to Mantis, who mostly served as comedic relief (though she does provide a key assist in the film's final act). Nonetheless, fans grew attached to the "Vol. 2" character, which resulted in her returning to fight Thanos alongside Nebula and the rest of the Guardians in their subsequent MCU adventures.

Karen Gillan, meanwhile, had her own comeback at the ready for Gunn, responding, "I expected at least 2 more soliloquies."