James Gunn Explains Why Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 Didn’t Address The Blip

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 managed to tell its deeply heartfelt (at times horrific) story in a way that brought the events and themes of the trilogy full circle – without getting mired in the mess of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. One thing that a lot of Marvel fans thought was odd was the fact that none of the Guardians seemed to acknowledge the experience of being erased in The Snap, and brought back to life in The Blip. Now Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is explaining why.

Why Guardians of the Galaxy 3 DIDN’T Address The Blip

In the commentary track for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, during the scene where Peter explains Gamora’s death and “return” to Daniela Melchior’s OrgoCorp worker, Gunn explains he needed to respond to the events of “the two big Avengers movies,” but didn’t want to get too hung up on the issue. He used Peter Quill, a character who wasn’t educated all that well in the science of that event, having been kidnapped and pulled out of school as a child, to explain it the best he could.

While that was a funny way to make Guardians of the Galaxy 3 “fit” in the timeline of the larger MCU, it was still a notable omission. The Blip has been at the center of so many of the stories in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga following Avengers: Endgame, as numerous characters – and the world around them – have experienced deep trauma and insane circumstances being annihilated and brought back to a world that moved on without them for five long years. It’s been enough of a story hook that virtually every Marvel TV show and movie has had to address it in some way. 

James Gunn recognized the weight that The Blip put on the MCU and its stories, admitting that “I didn’t want to get too caught up in the Blip because I’m afraid that if The Blip happened, everybody in the universe would just be completely insane.”

Is that something of a cop-out? Sure. But then again, Gunn has been infamously upfront about not loving the way his Guardians of the Galaxy characters were handled in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. From Star-Lord arguably causing Thanos to get the full Infinity Gauntlet, to Gamora’s death, or the weird halfway relationship with Thor; by the time Gunn was brought back into Disney and Marvel Studios’ ranks, he was pulling Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 together from places he never wanted the characters to go. Taking on an entire universe of dangling story threads (like how the larger galaxy is dealing post-Blip) was never going to be a task he took on for his final chapter in the MCU. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now available on digital release, complete with bonus features.