Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 tops fans' list as their most-anticipated future Marvel Studios film. It's been a tumultuous last several months for the MCU cosmic sub-franchise, having been put through the wringer after director and writer James Gunn was booted out of the job last year when his past offensive tweets were unearthed. For quite a time, the job was up for grabs, but in an unprecedented move, Disney reconsidered and hired Gunn back. And the public is excited about the project now more than ever.

Not much is known regarding the narrative for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, considering that much of it is expected to hinge on Avengers: Endgame. Considering the state of majority of the heroes after the events of Avengers: Infinity War, only Rocket and Nebula are left from their ranks. Kraglin is supposedly on his own mission, and there's a good chance that he also survived the snap. So at this point, it's difficult to gauge how the threequel will pan out given the circumstance. Despite that, fans are excited to see where the cosmic heroes' next adventure will bring them.

Related: Every MCU Movie Coming After Captain Marvel

According to a poll done by Rotten Tomatoes, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the most-anticipated MCU film post-Endgame. The Gunn directed/written film garnered 63% of the votes, followed by Black Panther 2 and Jon Watts' Spider-Man: Far From Home tied for second place with 48%. Rounding out the top five slots are Cate Shortland's Black Widow (40%), Chloe Zhao's The Eternals (14%), and Destin Daniel Cretton's Shang-Chi (11%). People could vote for multiple films during the process, and they've also included projects that are supposed to be in active development despite Marvel Studios not yet officially announcing them.

It's understandable that The Eternals and Shang-Chi get the bottom two spots, considering that not much is known about those projects at this point. Even in the comic books, they're the more obscure ones, with not much recognition outside of those who are avid readers of their adventures. But considering Marvel Studios ability to develop lower-tiered comic book characters and transform them into household names, it's not outside the realm of possibility that they'll gain the popularity that other MCU heroes are now enjoying. If anything, the Guardians of the Galaxy heroes were unknown before they broke out in Gunn's first film from 2014.

Seeing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as a runaway winner in this poll is quite interesting seeing that it precedes the sequel for Black Panther, which broke a lot of records and was the best received critically out of the MCU's offerings.  Additionally, it doesn't seem like release date matters much when it comes to fans' preference, with Far From Home coming out a couple months after Endgame, and it's expected to have strong narrative links to the ensemble event. Following the firing of Gunn, he signed on to direct and write DC's The Suicide Squad 2, slated to come out in 2021 and it remains to his current priority. That means that this threequel likely won't hit theaters until at least late 2022 or early 2023.

More: Marvel Movie Timeline: A Complete History Of The MCU

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Key Release Dates