James Gunn Returning to Write & Direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

For quite a long time, James Gunn has been hinting that he is looking forward to taking a break from big-budget action movies after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but in a lengthy Facebook post, Gunn announced that he will, in fact, be returning to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and he “can’t fricking wait to get started” on it.

In the end, my love for Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord, Yondu, Mantis, Drax, and Nebula – and some of the other forthcoming heroes – goes deeper than you guys can possibly imagine, and I feel they have more adventures to go on and things to learn about themselves and the wonderful and sometimes terrifying universe we all inhabit. And, like in both ‘Vol. 1’ and ‘Vol. 2,’ we will work on creating the story that goes beyond what you expect.

Gunn goes on to say how his working relationships with Marvel and Disney have “been the best” of his professional career and that he looks forward to helping to shape the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He said that Vol. 3 will take place after the two-part Avengers: Infinity War and will “conclude the story” of this version of the team, implying that there might be big changes down the road. He closed by promising fans that he will make Vol. 3 “with integrity and love and respect for the characters.”

Make mine Marvel. We are Groot. Excelsior!

Written and directed by James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 sees the return of Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, Michael Rooker as Yondu, Sean Gunn as Kraglin and Karen Gillan as Nebula, with newcomer Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Kurt Russell as Ego the Living Planet, Chris Sullivan as Taserface and Sylvester Stallone as a Nova Corps member.

The movie is slated to open on May 5, 2017.