Guardians of the Galaxy writer and director James Gunn pitched his ideas for a sequel to Marvel Studios right after the first film debuted and won them over with his original take for the cosmic team's next adventure. He then quickly put together a 70-page story treatment, and followed that up spending 48 days straight completing the first draft of the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 script yesterday.

Speaking with fans via social media, Gunn has tease vague hints about the sequel, revealing returning characters and clarifying rumors and speculation. What we do know is that the followup is another standalone adventure and not a setup movie for Avengers: Infinity War. We also know it's a "story about fathers," what that heavily involves that dad of Peter Quill a.k.a. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt).

Speaking with Digital Spy while promoting Jurassic World, Pratt explains that he's been talking to James Gunn and knows "everything" about the sequel, from who his father is (it's not meant to be a mystery and it is someone from the comics) to some of the songs on Awesome Mix Vol. 2, the followup to the record-setting mix track from the first Guardians of the Galaxy. He obviously can't share any details and explains that doing so would be like ruining Christmas morning by knowing what the gifts are under the tree.

"What I will say is that his pitch and his idea legitimately put tears in my eyes.  It is so good. It's so good. And I cannot wait to get started on it and I cannot wait for people to see what he's gonna to pull off with the second movie. It's gonna be so, so big and so good. From what I understand, they were like - they heard it at Marvel and they said nothing. They were like, perfect. There was no micromanaging of the idea. They just loved it so much that they didn't have a note for it. It's going to be remarkable."

Update: James Gunn explains his side of the story, about making Chris Pratt cry.

Gunn spoke this pitch meeting before when explaining in an interview that the sequel is an original story and that it'll be different than what's in Marvel Comics. He said Marvel dug it but described it as "risky."

"I went in and I sat down with those guys and I’m like, ‘Okay, here’s what I think the sequel should be.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, whoa. That’s risky, but okay.’"

He then of course blasted through the treatment and script relatively quickly. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 begins production in February for its summer 2017 debut, and if Pratt's excitement if of any indication, fans of the first should be pleased.

More: Could Guardians of the Galaxy Introduce Time-Travel?

James Gunn writes and directs the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel with returning stars Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn and the voices of Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel.

Ant-Man releases July 17 2015, Captain America: Civil War on May 6 2016, Doctor Strange on November 4 2016, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on May 5 2017, Spider-Man on July 28, 2017, Thor: Ragnarok on November 3 2017, Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 on May 4 2018, Black Panther on July 6 2018, Captain Marvel on November 2 2018, Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 on May 3 2019 and Inhumans on July 12, 2019.

Source: Digital Spy