Karen Gillan has seen Nebula evolve quite a bit throughout her tenure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As one of the children raised by Thanos (Josh Brolin), Nebula and her adopted sister Gamora (Zoe Saldana) have frequently been at odds, with Nebula becoming obsessed with besting Gamora and becoming the favoured child, despite her own hatred towards her "father." Over the course of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.2, AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, and AVENGERS: ENDGAME, we've seen Nebula redeeming herself and even becoming a full-fledged Avenger.
With GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 in development, it's a sure bet that we'll be seeing Nebula again, but where can the sequel take her character? While taking part in a virtual panel for GalaxyCon Live, Karen Gillan spoke of how she hopes the third installment of the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY franchise will further develop Nebula following the death of Thanos in AVENGERS: ENDGAME.
In Avengers, she had to face the source of her abuse, then actually watch him get eliminated from her life. I’m sort of thinking about future Nebula in the sense like, ‘What is she going to be like now that that person’s abuse has gone out of her life? How is she going to build herself back up again?’ Because it’s an odd feeling, I think, for someone who’s been abused by a parent, because they still love them and they’re sad that they’re gone, but also they hate them and they’re glad that they’re gone…I’m interested to maybe try and take her to a place now where she’s starting to rebuild her life.
James Gunn is currently in post-production on THE SUICIDE SQUAD, which is the project he took on when Disney fired him as the writer/director of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3. Obviously, Disney did eventually rehire Gunn, who will be tackling the third installment of the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY franchise once work in complete on THE SUICIDE SQUAD, but that all depends on when production can get underway.