Guardians of the Galaxy 3 Mixtape Has 'Changed A Lot'

Screen Rant

By Thomas Bacon

Published Jun 5, 2018

James Gunn provides an update on the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 soundtrack, saying the track list has changed a lot during development.

In a recent Facebook Q&A, James Gunn revealed that the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has changed a lot as he works on the film's script.

James Gunn is one of the most popular directors among Marvel fans, and not simply because of the unique tone and style of his Guardians of the Galaxy movies. He's admired and respected for his commitment to interacting with fans, and Gunn regularly hosts Q&As on his Facebook page. Of course, the reality is that he's always careful not to spoil his own movies, but this level of engagement is beyond any other Marvel director. It results in a drip-feed of new information that ensures fans are always discussing the next Guardians movie.

In his latest Facebook Q&A, Gunn revealed that he's currently redrafting the script treatment for Guardians Vol. 3. His first treatment was around 80 pages or so with photographs, and the writer-director is currently working through it to ensure it makes sense. Gunn noted that the film will be "very different," but also strongly implied that his plans changed over the course of writing the script. That's apparently affecting the song choices, which he seems to intend to revisit. Asked whether or not the soundtrack was decided, Gunn gave a simple answer: "Mostly. But I've also changed it a lot, so who knows!"

It's fascinating to watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 take shape. Gunn's comments suggest just how carefully he weaves the soundtrack and the script together; as the script changes, it clearly has a massive impact on the music. A year ago, early on in the scripting process, Gunn revealed that he was down to around 181 possible songs for the threequel. By October 2017, with the draft in a healthy shape, "almost all" of the songs had been chosen. It sounds as though Gunn will revisit those decisions once he's finished redrafting the script, though, so there could yet be major changes. Marvel will then no doubt begin purchasing the music rights for the soundtrack. Chatting to fans on Twitter, Gunn revealed that only around 2% of the movie's budget is typically spent on the music rights. Meanwhile, to date he's never had a case of an artist saying no when he approached them.

Where the first two films were influenced by Star-Lord's childhood songs, the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is based on Yondu's Zune. As such, it reflects Yondu's personality rather than Peter Quill's, and should make for a very interesting dynamic. It's refreshing to know that Yondu's influence will continue on through the Guardians movies; Peter Quill's father-figure played a major role in last year's Vol. 2, giving his life in order to save his "son."

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this, though, is that it really doesn't sound as though Star-Lord ever goes to Earth in Avengers 4. Rather than upgrade to a more modern music player, he's content with Yondu's Zune and the 300 or so tracks saved on it.