Thanks to the firing and subsequent rehiring of James Gunn, Marvel fans have had to wait a lot longer than expected for Guardians of the Galaxy 3, which promises to conclude the Guardians’ solo franchise (or at least Gunn’s involvement in it) and provide closure on all the characters’ MCU arcs. While the third Guardians film is one of Marvel’s most highly anticipated releases, there is some cause for skepticism, because this trilogy might struggle to stick the landing. Thanks to Vol. 2’s litany of mid-credits scenes and the events of Infinity War and Endgame, Vol. 3 has a lot of setups to pay off, and it might struggle to wrap them all up in a neat bow in a satisfying way.
Since rewriting Nicole Perlman’s initial Guardians of the Galaxy script and bringing the team to the big screen for the first time, Gunn has been the guiding creative light in this franchise. His personality can be seen all over the previous Guardians movies and he undoubtedly has a spectacular vision for the conclusion to the characters’ story. But he’s given himself a lot of setups to pay off and it’ll be difficult to answer all the big questions without making an overstuffed movie.
The most exciting mid-credits scene in Vol. 2 (and there were a lot) teased the introduction of Adam Warlock. Ayesha oversees the creation of an artificial being that will be capable of destroying the Guardians and names it “Adam.” In the comics, Adam’s powers rival that of Thanos and Captain Marvel, and many fans expected him to appear in Infinity War, then in Endgame. Now, he’s expected to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy 3. If Gunn isn’t planning to include him there either, then why even tease it at all?
The closing moments of Endgame left Gamora’s fate unclear. The Gamora from the previous Guardians movies is permanently dead, but the version from 2014 who still served Thanos and didn’t realize the virtues of heroism was brought into the present day for the final battle. She turned on the Mad Titan and fought his armies alongside Nebula, and in a deleted scene, Gamora is seen leaving the battlefield. Quill was briefly seen searching for Gamora when Thor came aboard his ship, seemingly setting up the search for 2014 Gamora as a plot point for Guardians Vol. 3. A stealthy warrior like Gamora will be difficult to find and even if they do find her, she’s unlikely to embrace them with open arms, so this could take up a huge chunk of the story.
In one of the other mid-credits scenes in Vol. 2, the original Guardians of the Galaxy team reassembled, having been inspired by Yondu’s sacrifice. Given the A-list casting (Sylvester Stallone, Michelle Yeoh, Ving Rhames, and Miley Cyrus), this scene seemed to set up a team-up of the two Guardians squads, or a separate franchise entirely for the original line-up. If this is also going to lead nowhere, then Marvel fans are going to start taking post-credits scenes with a pinch of salt, because very few of them are actually setting up anything significant for the future.
The most prominent rumors about the third Guardians movie are that it will explore Rocket’s origin story and that Drax will discover that his daughter is still alive. These are both promising plot points if there’s any merit to the rumors, but they have nothing to do with the established story threads running through the trilogy. The Guardians franchise has a lot on its plate as it is; piling more stuff on top may not be the best strategy.
One setup that will be easy to pay off is Kraglin giving Quill a Zune. One of the selling points of the Guardians movies is their soundtracks comprising awesome rock and pop hits from the ‘60s and ‘70s by such legendary artists as David Bowie, George Harrison, and Fleetwood Mac. Previously, this diegetic music has been played through Quill’s Walkman from the mixtapes his mom made for him, so they’ve been limited to the music that was available to her. Quill’s Zune will open up Vol. 3’s soundtrack to a wider variety of musical genres and eras. The character will have had time to discover the later work of all his favorite artists, and discover a bunch of new artists altogether. It’ll be interesting to see what Guardians of the Galaxy 3 does with the series’ now-renowned needle-drop soundtrack moments.
The abundance of plot points that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 has to pay off is mainly worrying because one of the most common criticisms of comic book movies is that they have an overstuffed script. Spider-Man 3 didn’t need Venom, Aquaman didn’t need Black Manta, The Dark Knight Rises dragged out the French Revolution allegory – this is the easiest way for a comic book movie (especially a trilogy-closing comic book movie) to fall short. If Adam Warlock chases the Guardians while they’re looking for 2014 Gamora, and Drax bumps into his daughter, and Rocket uncovers his backstory, and they all get into a big final battle and the original Guardians join in, then the movie could feel like it’s doing way too much and lose sight of the individual characters.
Gunn may want to trim away a couple of these storylines to keep the script focused, like George Lucas did with the mysteries of Kamino in the Star Wars prequels, but that’s a risky game to play, because Marvel fans don’t take it lightly when their questions aren’t answered. Whatever Gunn has planned, it’ll surely be the right choice for these characters and their collective journey, because he’s the architect of this whole story and he’s probably had the biggest payoffs planned since the beginning.
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