Great news for those waiting for updates on the next instalment in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise: filming on the third movie is officially underway.
The update was provided by director James Gunn who posted a picture from the set to his Twitter account with the caption: “It’s been a strange & long & at times challenging journey to get here, but the obstacles along the way have only made this moment more blissful.
“Back on set with my Guardians family for the first day of shooting #gotgvol3.”
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The photo confirms that Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan and Zoe Saldana have all returned for the film, along with newcomers Will Poulter, who is set to play Adam Warlock, and Chukwudi Iwuji in an unannounced role.
Pratt, who recently faced criticism for a different Instagram post, uploaded a decidedly less controversial one to celebrate the first day of shooting saying, “Day 1 in the can. Honestly could not have started off better. Hit the ground running with a delicate, emotional, funny, wild, complicated scene and everyone absolutely killed.
“So grateful to be puppeteered by my friend and brother the mad genius @jamesgunn Oh My God I promise you… this movie will be worth the wait.”
Gunn’s trajectory as the helmer of the beloved franchise has been a fairly rocky one. After directing the first two films, he was stood down from leading the third due to the resurfacing of some of his Tweets from 2008 in which joked about pedophilia.
In his apology for the old social media posts, Gunn expressed his regret at his failed attempt to be shocking.
“My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative,” he wrote in a statement. “I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time.”
Warner Bros. then hired the filmmaker to direct 2021’s The Suicide Squad before he was reinstated as the director on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 back in 2019.
Gunn previously told Entertainment Weekly that the third film will be an intense one. “It’s pretty heavy actually”, he said. “It’s a heavier story, so it’s an emotional process to go through.”
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled to be released on May 5, 2023.
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