Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 opened to massive box office numbers with its blend of humor, action, and drama. Who can forget the adorable intro with a dancing Baby Groot? During the lead up to the movie, director James Gunn wasn’t shy about stating his intention of returning for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and in a talk during E3 this week, Gunn opened up about how far along the development for Vol. 3 is. Turns out, Gunn recently completed the first draft of the treatment, which in Hollywood is like a general outline, not a script.
Gunn wrote and directed Guardians Vol. 2 and was given the same amount of creative control for Vol. 3, so he wasted no time getting to work. This was his statement about it:
I’m writing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and I finished the first draft of the treatment yesterday. I’m excited about it. I feel really great about it.
Unfortunately, Gunn didn’t open up about specifics of the storyline. Vol. 2 took place a mere six months after Vol. 1 and the next time we’ll see the Guardians will be four years later (in the Marvel timeline) in Avengers: Infinity War due out next year followed by the fourth Avengers movie in 2019. Vol. 3 will take place some time after this, but we don’t know the exact time frame.
Concerning the plot, all we can know for sure right now is that Ayesha, the leader of the Sovereign race, will most likely return with the creation of Adam Warlock. Gunn has also hinted that Quasar will be in Vol. 3 in some capacity.
In developing an early treatment, Gunn is getting a jump on the development of Vol. 3, but what he comes up with will still be subservient to the overall Marvel timeline and list of movies coming out over the next three or four years. The next Guardians movie still doesn’t have a release date, but it’ll likely be out some time in 2020 or later. That’s plenty of time for Gunn to iron out the script.