James Gunn Confirms He’s Only Directing One More Guardians Of The Galaxy Movie

baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
(Image credit: (Marvel))

What a difference a year makes. Last summer, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 had an uncertain future at Marvel when the writer/director was swiftly fired by Disney for a series of old and insensitive tweets. He’s now working on The Suicide Squad for Warner Bros and he’s back on board for the third Guardians film. However, it looks like Gunn’s Marvel franchise will stop at trilogy.

When asked how many more Guardians of the Galaxy films he was ready to direct on Instagram, James Gunn replied with the following words in the comments section:

1 more.

Considering James Gunn is currently in high gear on getting The Suicide Squad into production ahead of its summer 2021 release, he’s referencing Guardians 3. It’s not too much of a surprise, either. Most MCU films have ended at three solo films – such as Iron Man and Captain America. Chris Hemsworth’s Thor will be the first to break the streak in Phase Four with Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder.

Also, with James Gunn moving on the DCEU with his take on Suicide Squad, there is a chance he’ll continue over at Warner Bros with another franchise if it proves successful. The DC Comics adaptation is shaping up to feature a huge ensemble cast. Along with Margot Robbie, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Joel Kinnaman all reportedly returning to their characters, Idris Elba, Taika Waititi, David Dastmalchian, Peter Capaldi, Nathan Fillion, John Cena, Storm Reid and Daniela Melchior are all rumored to have roles as well.

Another commenter on James Gunn’s recent Insta post asked about the official The Sucide Squad casting to which he said this:

You’ll find out in the next couple days.

Ohh! Sounds like James Gunn will be breaking his silence on the offical casting for Suicide Squad quite soon. Moving back to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, here’s the throwback picture the Marvel writer/director initially shared that sparked the mini Q&A between him and fans:

A photo posted by on

There’s James Gunn standing besides his fellow MCU directors. From left to right is the Russo Brothers sandwiched between, Ant-Man’s Peyton Reed, Jon Favreau, Black Panther’s Ryan Coogler, Gunn and Joss Whedon. Favreau was the first director of the franchise back in 2008 with Iron Man, before Whedon helmed the first two Avengers films and the Russos took over Captain America: Civil War and Avengers 3 and 4.

James Gunn sounds proud to be back among the talented Marvel directors. After he finishes he work on The Suicide Squad, he’ll jump right to the last Guardians of the Galaxy, which is presumably the final installment of the franchise. The movie hasn’t yet been given a release date, but could nab one of Marvel’s untitled 2022 release dates at the earliest!

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.