James Gunn Talks Writing Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

James Gunn is hard at work on the script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, with the writer/director set to return for a film which he says will "conclude the story of this iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy." Gunn offered an update on his progress in a recent interview with Collider, saying that it will likely be a little over a year before the movie starts filming.

Gunn says that he starts off every movie he writes by creating a very thorough treatment, or summary of the story. "I think of writing a story as creating the body of a human being and you've got to start with the skeleton, start with the bones, and you create the bones," he said. "You take a lot of time because that's the actual base of the movie and if you screw that part up, later on down the line, you're going to have a lot of mistakes. So by creating a really strong foundation for the story, that's the most important thing."

Gunn predicts that his treatment will ultimately end up being around 70 pages long, complete with photographs. While he says that it has been "pretty easy" to come up with the story for the movie, he did add that there are some unique challenges that come with capping off the trilogy. "The truth is, the first movie is the first act, the second movie is the second act, and the third movie is the third act, so I'm tying a lot of stuff together in the third film," he said.

"We get a lot of answers on a lot of different things, so doing that in an elegant way takes a little bit of grace and elegance," he continued. "It's more challenging in that respect writing the third movie than the second movie." 

Gunn has given a few teases for the upcoming Vol. 3, previously saying that he feels "really great" about what he has so far but that he is considering violating canon to modify a detail introduced in the mugshot sequence of the first movie. He has also confirmed that the film will introduce fan favorite Adam Warlock, as well as bring back Vol. 2's villain Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki).

Gunn wouldn't reveal Vol. 3's release date to Collider, although he did say that he knows the "basic time" it will hit theaters. (He previously teased a 2020 debut.) While we wait to see what path the Guardians head down next, see some actors who almost ended up on the team.