Guardians of the Galaxy's Sean Gunn Responds to Vol. 3's Surprising Ending (Exclusive)

For well over a year, James Gunn promised that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was going to get messy. The critically-acclaimed director has never been shy about killing off fan-favorite characters, as evident by the high death toll in 2021's The Suicide Squad, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 seemed poised to emulate that. Coupled with stars like Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldaña expressing that they viewed the cosmic threequel as their last hurrahs as Drax and Gamora, respectively, fans went into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 understandably preparing for the worst.

Warning – The rest of this article contains spoilers from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

This made it all the more surprising when credits rolled on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and every protagonist's heart remained beating. Speaking to ComicBook.com, star Sean Gunn revealed that the cast was fine with internet rumors bubbling because it ultimately threw people off of Vol. 3's scent.

"We certainly didn't go out of our way to dissuade any rumors about deaths because you don't want people knowing where stuff is going," Sean noted.

That said, there is the possibility that James and company were being honest about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3's body count at one point in time, but plans changed along the way.

"I know James toyed with it at various times, so it was like maybe so-and-so would die," Sean continued. "And then just, in the course of figuring out the story, it just didn't make sense for anyone. And I like where everyone lands, and it's true, it's a finality of sorts for a lot of the characters without death, which is pretty interesting to me too."

Experimenting with character deaths is nothing new in the Guardians franchise either. James revealed to ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis that he once scripted a Gamora death in 2017's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but that had to be scrapped due to her crucial role in Avengers: Infinity War.

As Sean alludes to, there is a "finality without death" to this entire Guardians roster. Drax appears ready to shed his "destroyer" title in favor of life as a dad. The woman out of time iteration of Gamora is continuing to find her place in the galaxy. Peter Quill is leaving his Star-Lord alias at the door as he attempts to understand more about his humanity.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is currently in theaters.