Credit: Marvel StudiosThere are currently no confirmed plans to bring the Guardians of the Galaxy back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and with James Gunn now launching and leading the DC Universe, chances are they won’t return at all.
Last year, Marvel fans officially said goodbye to the Guardians of the Galaxy–or, at least, they thought they did. What was touted as the last time audiences would see this cast of Guardians became a question mark when the post-credits scene declared that Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord would return. Now, Karen Gillan is speaking out about the surprise.
Karen Gillan first appeared as Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). At first the antagonist of the franchise, Nebula eventually became an intrinsic part of the Guardians of the Galaxy squad after appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), and, most recently, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), which marked her last live-action appearance of the character.
Along with most audience members, Gillan admitted to being shocked when it was revealed in the post-credits scene that Star-Lord would be back in Kevin Feige’s MCU sometime in the future. Her reaction makes sense considering everyone knew that this was the last outing for the group.
“It was pretty surprising, but it was cool as well. I was like, ‘Okay, what’s the plan here?’” Gillan recently told The Hollywood Reporter.
James Gunn and the cast, namely Dave Bautista, who plays Drax the Destroyer, have already confirmed that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 would be the last time fans saw this specific squad, and in the mid-credits scene, Marvel confirmed who the current Guardians of the Galaxy are.
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Following the events of the third installment of the series, which focused primarily on the survival of Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Racoon, the end of the film showed each member going their separate ways. The mid-credits then revealed the new squad: Rocket Racoon, Groot (Vin Diesel), Adam Warlock (Will Poulter), Cosmo the Spacedog (Maria Bakalova), Phyla (Kai Zen), and Kraglin Obfonteri (Sean Gunn).
The replacement of Gillan’s Nebula, as well as Pratt’s Peter Quill/Star-Lord, Bautista’s Drax, and Zoe Saldaña’s Gamora, means that there is a chance this group will appear further down the line in the MCU, maybe during the rest of Phase Five or Phase Six, when Avengers 5 (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027) debuts.
Going back to Gillan’s comments, there is no news on when and where Chris Pratt will appear. At one point, it was suggested that he could star in the ongoing Nova project, which was just recently confirmed by Marvel executive Brad Winderbaum as being back in development.
The future of Kevin Feige’s MCU is uncertain. After more than a few misfires, with last year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels being particularly poorly received, Marvel Studios has stripped their entire slate back. This year, we will see just Deadpool & Wolverine‘s (2024) debut, with Thunderbolts and Blade now pushed to 2025, where they will join the recently cast The Fantastic Four (2025) movie.
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The Fantastic Four stars Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
As for Karen Gillan, she will next appear alongside Russell Crowe in Sleeping Dogs (2024), and then she will reunite with Mike Flanagan on The Life of Chuck (TBD). Her most recent MCU appearance was in the second season of the animated series What If…? on Disney+.
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