While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is still more than a year away, it remains in the headlines as shooting on the MCU epic continues. The film's director, James Gunn, is heading another string of successful comic book ventures in DC's The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. Gunn has quickly become one of the hottest commodities in Hollywood, as it seems everything the filmmaker touches turns to gold.
But with the GOTG director hopping back into the MCU, fans wait with bated breath for any morsel of info on the upcoming threequel. The film has been described as much darker than the previous two Guardians movies, as this serves as an endpoint for this version of the intergalactic team.
Despite Vol. 3 being yet another entry into one of Marvel's biggest franchises, Gunn has been able to learn from everything he has done since Guardians Vol. 2 and is apparently bringing it to his latest Marvel adventure.
From Suicide Squad to Guardians 3
In a new interview with Variety, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director James Gunn revealed what he will be bringing from his time working on The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker to the MCU threequel.
The renowned director said in his time working with DC he learned to "balance [his] life a little bit better." This is something he failed to do on his past two MCU projects:
"I had as much fun as you could have during COVID making Peacemaker, and so I’m trying to apply that more to Vol. 3. In all truth, the first two Guardians, I love the cast and crew, but they were really difficult to make. And a lot of that was self-imposed difficulty by me. I realized after Vol. 2 that I couldn’t continue to live a life if I made everything I did like Vol. 2, which I just killed myself over, unnecessarily. I needed to balance my life a little bit better. And so I’ve been applying that to Vol. 3."
When actually looking at the nuts and bolts of making these super-powered blockbusters, Gunn said that “The Suicide Squad also has informed Vol. 3 a lot in terms of how we’re shooting it." The helmer of the MCU's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise stated that Vol. 3 will have "a different type of groundedness" not present in the first two movies:
I think The Suicide Squad also has informed Vol. 3 a lot in terms of how we’re shooting it. There’s a different type of groundedness, I think, in this movie that we had in both Peacemaker and Suicide Squad. I learned so much from everything that I do.
Gunns Continues to Learn
It is no surprise that James Gunn is bringing lessons learned from his recent ventures into the world of DC. This is what filmmakers do. The art of becoming a better professional in any vocation comes from adding tools to that metaphorical (or sometimes literal) tool belt.
But with a name as big as Gunn's, more people will be able to see those inspirations and evolutions than almost anyone. One interesting point is the fact that the Guardians director has developed a way to live a better life while working on a project.
It is not hard to tell that Gunn has put everything into all of his work, but that is particularly evident in GOTG 1 and 2. But nothing is worth killing oneself over, and as is evident in both The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, this director can still produce a quality product while not devoting himself to it 24 hours a day.
Looking at the actual nitty-gritty filmmaking inspiration Gunn will be bringing over for his next Marvel adventure, it is nice to hear that he will be adding some "groundedness" to the intergalactic threequel. GOTG 3 is supposedly going to be the darkest of the trilogy and after traversing the vibrant worlds of the cosmos in hilarious fashion, a bit of grounding may actually prove valuable.
Guardians has never been a franchise to shy away from the deeper, more serious subject matter, usually doing so with a comedic coat of paint. But if this upcoming film is a dour as some say, the cast and crew will have to get serious for a change. Not to say the film will do away with the franchise's signature humor, but it will likely incorporate more earnest moments amongst the hilarity.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 comes to theaters on May 5, 2023.
