Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director James Gunn shared his thoughts on the MCU threequel's extended runtime.
Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is set to end the team's run in the MCU on a highly emotional note, giving fans the last story ever with this iteration of the intergalactic team of misfits.
A longer runtime appears to be in the cards for James Gunn's final MCU outing, as the director previously confirmed that Vol. 3 is longer than both of its predecessors from Phase 2 and Phase 3.
Guardians 3's Long Runtime Explained by James Gunn
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director James Gunn took to Twitter to share new information about the threequel's runtime, which comes after a rumor noted that the movie would be 2 hours and 29 minutes long.
While Gunn only confirmed that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is close to that length, he made a promise that "not a second is wasted" in its extended runtime:
"It’s around that long, although that’s not yet exact. And, I promise, not a second is wasted. There’s no fat. It was necessary to experience the full arc for every major Guardians character, not only for this film, but for the trilogy (or, I should say, trilogy plus)."
Gunn also noted that the 149-minute runtime is very close to accurate but that it's only estimating how long the credits are in total:
"It’s gonna be around that. It’s just the length of end credits that are being estimated in this running time."
Why Guardians 3's Lengthy Runtime Is a Good Thing
James Gunn is continuing a notable trend with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, as the third movies in MCU trilogies have typically been the longest ones in their respective franchises.
Spider-Man: No Way Home continued this trend as the first threequel in Phase 4, as did Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania as the first of Phase 5, which almost set a standard for Guardians of the Galaxy 3 to follow.
For this new movie, with over half a dozen characters for which to complete story arcs, the story will need all the time it can get after the first two movies came in at 122 minutes and 137 minutes long, respectively.
Even more exciting is that test screenings for Guardians 3 have reportedly been overwhelmingly positive, giving Gunn yet another hit entry for the team he's been building in the MCU for the past decade.
All in all, with plenty of excitement building for Marvel Studios' 32nd theatrical release, the extended runtime should only serve as a positive to help this fan-favorite team tell their adventure the best it can possibly be told.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will arrive in theaters on May 5.
