Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Will Set Up New Team After James Gunn’s Departure

“Are you ready for one last ride?” Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) asks his team of intergalactic outlaws in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It may be the final tour for these Guardians — Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Kraglin (Sean Gunn), Groot (Vin Diesel), and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) — but the Marvel Studios franchise is expected to continue on after director James Gunn’s trilogy ender hits theaters on May 5th. According to Gunn, who now heads DC Studios: Vol. 3 will be “the last time people will see this team of Guardians.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gunn confirmed that Vol. 3 hints at a future for the Guardians in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — with a different lineup. It’s a spoiler to reveal who will stay and who will go (to borrow from The Clash), but Bautista and Saldana have said they will not be returning to the MCU. (“I don’t think this is the end for the Guardians,” Saldana told THR. “It is the end for me, for Gamora.”)

“This is the end for us, the last time people will see this team of Guardians,” Gunn confirmed last year. “It’s big; it’s so, so big and dark, and different from what people might be expecting it to be.” Gunn added, “I just want to be true to the characters, the story and give people the wrap-up that they deserve for the story. That’s always a little bit scary; I’m doing my best.”

In the comics, the Guardians originated in 1969’s Marvel Super-Heroes #18 as a guerilla legion fighting to free planet Earth in the year 3007: the Jupiter-born Charlie-27, the crystalized Pluvian called Martinex, the thousand-year-old Major Vance Astro, and the bow and yaka arrow-wielding Yondu Udonta. More modern versions of the team would grow to add Stakar Ogord, a.k.a. Starhawk, Aleta Ogord, and the flame-haired Nikki. Gunn’s Guardians most closely resemble the revamped team of 2008 bringing together Star-Lord, Groot, Rocket, Gamora, Drax, Phyla-Vell, and the cosmic crusader Adam Warlock.

The official logline: “In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,our beloved band of misfits are settling into life on Knowhere. But itisn’t long before their lives are upended by the echoes of Rocket’sturbulent past. Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, mustrally his team around him on a dangerous mission to save Rocket’s life —a mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possiblylead to the end of the Guardians as we know them.”

Starring Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, Zoe Saldana as Gamora, DaveBautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis,featuring Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, and Sean Gunnas Kraglin, Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, Will Poulter asAdam Warlock, and Maria Bakalova as Cosmo, Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is in theaters May 5th.