It's been an interesting couple of years for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY director James Gunn. The filmmaker was riding high with the MCU hits GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2. He had also met with Anthony and Joe Russo to plot out the cosmic future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unfortunately, some old off color tweets resurfaced that caused Disney to part ways with the erstwhile director. Undaunted, Gunn dusted himself off and jumped cinematic universes, quickly signing on to helm DC's THE SUICIDE SQUAD. Seeing the error of their ways, Disney brought James Gunn back into the fold and now things are on track for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3.
Gunn, like many Hollywood creatives has a very active social media presence. Moreover, he's often very interactive with his fans. While many GUARDIANS fans are excited about the prospect of a third film a few are nervous that James Gunn might kill off one or more of the Guardians in the upcoming movie. When a fan implored James Gunn not to kill off any of the leads in the next movie, Gunn had a fairly insightful response:
Now I understand that James Gunn and other directors like him are dealing with the realm of comicbook films. It's a realm where the heroes seem to always come out on top and death is a rarity. Even when it does happen, somehow many of our heroes find a way to return from death. The problem with this is that if no one ever truly dies or is constantly being brought back to life, there's no real stakes. Without the possibility of death, it's hard to invest knowing that your heroes will always come out on top. The MCU was criticized for this for years until AVENGERS: ENDGAME when both Iron Man and Black Widow finally died.
Although James Gunn points out, I think rightly, that the idea that no characters should ever die in a movie is inherently flawed, I wouldn't read into it any more than that. Just because Gunn says characters should die in the MCU doesn't necessarily mean that's going to happen in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3. That's not to say it won't happen but it's not a foregone conclusion either. Even if James Gunn does decide to kill off one or more major characters I doubt it will be in any way capricious. The death of Michael Rooker's Yondu in the last film was extremely meaningful and impactful. I've no doubt the same will be true if one of our eponymous heroes happens to fall.
James Gunn is currently filming THE SUICIDE SQUAD with a release date scheduled for August 6, 2021. Production on GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 is expected to start sometime next year.