Chris Pratt Says Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Will Definitely Still Happen

Nebula, Star-Lord, Gamora and Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
(Image credit: (Marvel Studios))

While recent news of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad moving forward with a 2021 release date adds to a promising DCEU lineup, what about the future of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? Since Gunn’s July firing, production has been delayed and many are now sour about what the trilogy closer might look like without him as writer and director. However, during the Los Angeles premiere of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, Chris Pratt showed some optimism about the fate of the franchise. Here’s what he said:

I promise there'll be a third movie, I don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like, but I know everyone on board is just eager to give the fans what they want and wrap up a trilogy in a meaningful way.

Whew! Chris Pratt’s words to Variety show he hasn’t given up on playing Star-Lord again to wrap up the trilogy "in a meaningful way," even with James Gunn officially out of the picture. However, desire is all the actor can give fans right now as the third Guardians of the Galaxy seems to be taking a backseat in the MCU following James Gunn's exit.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will not make its original May 2020 release date as the film hunts for a new director. It potentially won’t pick up production until at least February 2021.

The writer/director of the nostalgic space epics was dismissed from development of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after insensitive tweets from his past resurfaced. The cast and crew of the films then penned a letter in support of James Gunn returning to Marvel Studios for Guardians 3, but Disney decided to stand firm in its decision.

Actor Dave Bautista (Drax) has been the most vocal with his anger about a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 without James Gunn, criticizing Disney’s way of handling the situation.

A few months later, it was announced that James Gunn had moved on to another project for DC/Warner Bros., a relaunch of Suicide Squad. Per a recent report, the studio offered Gunn his pick of DC properties, including the chance to helm a Superman movie. His decision to helm The Suicide Squad is the most fitting and fans are excited to see how he will approach the franchise.

Chris Pratt’s recent update is uplifting amidst months of bleak news about the fate of grooving space-dwellers. The team from Guardians of the Galaxy will return in Avengers: Endgame to continue the shocking cliffhanger in Infinity War that showed many MCU characters wiped out by Thanos’ deadly snap. Endgame arrives in theaters on April 26, 2019. From there? We'll have to wait and see. But Pratt just promised a third Guardians movie would indeed be coming to wrap up the trilogy in a meaningful way, so now we can hold him to his word.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.