The 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Trilogy Will Tell One Complete Story

We knew the third volume of Guardians of the Galaxy may spell the end for the team as we know it, but it looks like it will wrap up the loose ends before dismantling everything.

James Gunn is planning to make his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy one complete story. The Guardians will make an appearance in Avengers: Infinity War before their third outing as a team, but then that may be the last we see of this iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy. But don't worry: though Gunn may be wrapping up his flagship series, this won't be the last we see of him with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Gunn told Entertainment Weekly his vision for the Guardians of the Galaxy series is more finite than the expanding Marvel Universe would have you believe.

"I think really that the three movies work together as a whole, they're going to tell one story.  This is the story of this iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and we're going to get to know the characters even better in the same way we got to know them much better in this film than the first one.  I wouldn't have said yes if I didn't have a fairly clear idea of where we were going and what we were going to do. I'm not a guy that's just going to do it if I don't have a vision for it. So, I'm very excited."

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is still in the earliest possible stages (i.e., whatever is rattling around Gunn's head), so any details from the film will come from Gunn — who has confirmed that he will be back to write and produce it. The third Guardians film will take place after the Guardians meet (and probably clash) with the Avengers in next year's Avengers: Infinity War.

At the world premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Gunn hinted at the narrative arc that would be concluded with the third film after summarizing the narrative theses of the first two films.

"The first Guardians was about learning to love other people for people who didn't know how to do it. The second movie has a lot to do with learning how to be loved by other people."

It's all about love, guys. Going off of this, I'm going to guess that the third film will be about some form of self-sacrificial love.

It's unclear though, if Gunn finishing the story he wants to tell with the Guardians in the third film will be the end for that team in the MCU altogether. Will they appear as a new team under another director's tutelage? Or does this mean something a bit more ominous for the ending of Guardians of the Galaxy 3? Or perhaps they will be relegated to supporting roles in other Marvel tentpoles, like Tony Stark, who has been a supporting player since Iron Man 3 formed a pretty conclusive narrative arc for his character. Who knows? It's unlikely that Marvel will want to let go of their biggest moneymakers after the Avengers.

Even when he wraps up his Guardians of the Galaxy story, Gunn promises this won't be the end of his Marvel career. Gunn told theThe Hollywood Reporter that ending the trilogy "doesn't mean it will be the end of my relationship with Marvel."

THR noted that Marvel head Kevin Feige said Monday he could foresee a future in which Gunn would oversee projects beyond Guardians 3.

Gunn would be one of the few directors to stay on with Marvel Studios for longer than three films. Former Marvel golden boy Joss Whedon — who helped shepherd in the second phase of Marvel with The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron — has moved on to work with Warner Bros on the DC Extended Universe to helm Batgirl, and even Iron Man director Jon Favreau didn't stick around in the director's chair for more than two movies. Only the Russo brothers have a few more movies under their belt — helming Captain America: Winter Soldier, Civil War and the next two Avengers films.

Who knows which films Gunn would want to work on next, though with his experience with quirky teams, he could easily take over the Avengers movies from the Russo's after they wrap up the Infinity War saga. However, it's easy to imagine him taking another weird, cosmic corner of the MCU.

What Marvel movie would you want to see Gunn direct?