James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 serves as a swansong for the incarnation of the team we've come to know and love over the years, and while some cast members (Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldaña, for example), have made it clear that they are stepping away from their respective roles, the door is left open for others to return down the line.
Spoilers follow from this point on.
At the end of the movie, Peter Quill hands over leadership of the crew to Rocket and returns to Earth to reconcile with his grandfather. The post-credits scene shows Peter having breakfast with the old man, and a final title cared tells us that "The Legendary Star-Lord Will Return."
This would seem to suggest that Marvel Studios is planning more adventures with Quill, but would Chris Pratt have any interest in revisiting the character in a project without James Gunn at the helm? Yes, as it happens!
“It would be strange to continue [Star Lord’s] story without James,” Pratt tells Total Film. “He’s done such a masterful job in the first three films. We really found the voice of Peter Quill together and without him, obviously, I would never have had this opportunity. He writes it, he directs it, he dreams up the music, it’s his imagination on screen. So, to continue to tell the story, it would really be important to honor what he’s done in the first three films and to honor what the fans have grown to love about the character and not simply do it because people might show up to pay for it, you know?”
“I don’t want to be cynical in the approach and if that’s the case, I just wouldn’t do it at all," he continued. "So maybe down the road if something makes sense I would do it but it would really have to check a lot of the right boxes.”
Of course, Pratt has already played Quill under other directors, but that was only in a supporting capacity. Is there a chance the studio might be cooking up a solo Star-Lord movie or Disney+ series? We'll just have to wait and see how things play out in Phase 5.
"In Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 our beloved band of misfits are settling into life on Knowhere. But it isn’t long before their lives are upended by the echoes of Rocket’s turbulent past." "Peter Quill, still reeling from the loss of Gamora, must rally his team around him on a dangerous mission to save Rocket’s life—a mission that, if not completed successfully, could quite possibly lead to the end of the Guardians as we know them."
Gunn writes and directs Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, featuring Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, and Maria Bakalova. Kevin Feige is the producer and Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Nikolas Korda, Simon Hatt, and Sara Smith serve as executive producers.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 arrives in theaters on May 5, 2023.