'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3' Will Start Filming This Year, According To James Gunn

By Chris Evangelista/April 5, 2021 3:30 pm EST

James Gunn has The Suicide Squad on the way this year, but what the status of his Marvel franchise, Guardians of the Galaxy? According to Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is on track to start shooting this year. We've more or less knew this was happening – back in December, actor Dave Bautista said he expected filming to commence in 2021. But now we have confirmation from Gunn.

While fielding questions on social media, James Gunn was asked when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 might start filming. Gunn's succinct answer: this year. We don't exactly know when this year, and Gunn is currently working on the Suicide Squad spin-off series Peacemaker. But it seems like as soon as Gunn is done with that he'll move on to shoot Guardians.

This coincides with what Guardians cast member Dave Bautista said back in December. "I believe it's okay to say that we will go into production late next year," Bautista told EW. "I saw a script early on when we were all on schedule and James Gunn was attached before everything went nutso. I believe because [Marvel's] whole calendar has changed [due to the pandemic shutdown and Guardians' production delays], that storylines have changed, and they won't intersect like originally planned. Obviously, we lost Chadwick [Boseman], so I don't know where that leaves Black Panther. I haven't seen a new script, is the short answer."

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 hasn't had the smoothest of paths to the screen. In July of 2018 Gunn was fired from the project after old offensive tweets resurfaced. Marvel and Disney still planned to move forward with Gunn's script even though he was no longer attached to direct, but eventually, the studios relented and re-hired Gunn.

Now, not only will Gunn direct the third film, he'll also make the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which will be filmed at the same time and is scheduled to arrive on Disney+ in 2022. Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, meanwhile, is set to open sometime in 2023.