Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been in the news recently, but not for the reasons Disney hoped.  After the ousting of writer/director James Gunn, the future of the franchise is in question. The cast expressed their support for Gunn, but it appears more unlikely that no amount of fan or actor support will bring him back.  

It has been widely believed that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is one of Marvel’s unnamed 2020 release dates which means pre-production was well underway.  According to Reddit user FayetteStage that appears to have changed.  Now obviously take their claims with an obligatory grain of salt, but what they’re saying does add up. According to the thread, they work for Pinewood studios in Atlanta and was part of a crew working on production (presumably set design) for the past twoo and a half months.  That was until they received a notice “ saying that everything was stopping indefinitely. It didn’t say so but it was clear it was because of the Gunn situation. We’ve been instead assigned to some very light work on other part-time pre-production work that will take up other studio space here, with the indication that GOTG3 work may pick up anytime between February to July. This was from Disney, not Marvel.”

Adding yet another wrinkle, Gunn had already finished and submitted the script for the film. Until Disney either reverses the decision on Gunn or brings in a new director it seems highly unlikely we’ll see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 by 2020. I’d wager Disney still plans on using the script, but if a new director is hired, he/she will likely want to reshape Gunn’s story into their own vision.  At least we know Starlord, Groot and the rest will be in Avengers 4 when that hits theatres next year.