Chris Pratt promises fans that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will happen. At one point in its development, the project was supposed to start filming in January 2019 in order to meet a theoretical 2020 release date. However, that was before Disney fired James Gunn from the movie last summer, after old offensive tweets of his resurfaced. Now, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 remains on indefinite hold as Marvel Studios searches for a replacement. Recently, it was revealed they reached out to Vice helmsman Adam McKay about the film, but nobody's been brought onboard yet.

Gunn was such an integral part of the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies that it's difficult to imagine the franchise continuing without his involvement. Still, the sub-series is one of the most popular in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, combining to gross $1.6 billion worldwide. With that kind of success, Marvel is very much interested in making another Guardians, and Pratt knows it will eventually come into fruition.

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Speaking with Variety while at the premiere of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Pratt was asked about the status of the next Guardians movie:

"Yeah, we're gonna see another one. I promise there'll be a third movie. I don't know exactly what that's gonna look like. But I know everyone onboard is just eager to give the fans what they want and wrap up a trilogy in a meaningful way."

Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

The financial incentive to get the ball rolling on Guardians 3 is apparent, but it's encouraging that Marvel is taking their time. As Pratt indicates, this'll be the final installment of the team's standalone trilogy, and everyone involved will want to make sure the story ends on a high note. It would be a shame if Guardians 3 was the rare Marvel movie that underwhelmed, especially with Gunn actively developing The Suicide Squad for DC. For several reasons, there's a lot of pressure to get Guardians 3 "right," and it'll be interesting to see how things play out. The current plan is for Marvel to use Gunn's script, so the trick will be finding a director that meshes with those sensibilities in a way that's unique.

Several popular fan picks, like Edgar Wright, Phil Lord & Chris Miller, and Taika Waititi, seem to be pipe dreams - particularly since they've all called for Gunn to be rehired. In all likelihood, the new Guardians 3 director will be a relative unknown plucked from obscurity, which is an approach Marvel has used to great effect on multiple occasions (including Gunn himself back in the day). It's unfortunate that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been marred by all the controversy, but hopefully it'll all work out in the end. Marvel's track record should give fans confidence, and they aren't going to take their responsibility lightly.

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Source: Variety

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