James Gunn plays down Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers crossover

When Marvel released their impressive slate for ‘Phase Three,’ one of the most anticipated movies was Guardians of the Galaxy 2, due out on May 5, 2017. What was interesting, however, was it was scheduled only a year before the release of Avengers: Infinity War Part 1. Cue a ton of speculation on how the group of intergalactic misfits would somehow buddy up with the superhero team, especially after the film featured the first real glimpse of Thanos, the major villain that will be rounding out Phase Three. But James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy 2, has quashed those rumours (somewhat). He issued this statement via his Facebook page:

‘Woke up the other day to two articles – one that announced I said the Avengers and the Guardians were never teaming up, another that said I said they were. These two articles were based ON THE SAME INTERVIEW (the podcast with Jeff Goldsmith). The truth is, I never said either of those things. I’m not going to tell anyone what happens to the Guardians, especially two or three movies down when who even knows if I’ll be around anymore.

… All I’ve ever tried to say was the Guardians are an important part of the MCU, and they definitely share an existence with the Avengers and other characters in the MCU. But the week after the movie opened I walked into the Marvel offices, and I sat down with Kevin Feige and some of the other folks at Marvel. We had a long discussion about where the Guardians were headed and what was happening to them. I told them exactly what I wanted to do with the sequel to Guardians, and everyone was on board and excited. And, regarding the bigger picture, we all agreed on one thing, and that was to keep huge chunks of the Guardians separate from the Marvel heroes of earth, because they have a whole galaxy to explore. We wanted to use them as a way to make the MCU bigger, not smaller. We wanted to make sure they have their own mythos, as opposed to only one that is intertwined with the earthbound characters. They ARE connected, of course, but that connection would not be the purpose of their stories and fictional lives.

When I’m asked about the Guardians and their future, and whether they’ll meet up with the Avengers I really don’t have all that much to say, because some of it isn’t decided yet, and I don’t want to give away what is decided.’

So what we can take from these words – straight from Gunn’s mouth – is that firstly, nothing is 100% decided just yet. Secondly, there won’t be a ‘crossover’ per se, at least not in Phase Three – who knows what more Guardians or Avengers movies, aside from the ones already planned, may hold in store? All we can do at this stage is look forward to the films that we are getting; roll on Guardians of the Galaxy 2.