James Gunn says Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy works as 'one story'

James Gunn has his own Star Wars with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and like the original three installments of the Skywalker saga, his space opera trilogy will work together to tell one large story.

“I think really that the three movies work together as a whole, they’re going to tell one story,” Gunn told EW at the premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. “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.”

He added, “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.”

Gunn, who wrote and directed the first two films, announced on Facebook Monday that he would return for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3. The second installment, hitting theaters on May 5, picks up with the intergalactic misfits as they encounter Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Star-Lord’s father, Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell).

The official movie soundtrack for Vol. 2 drops this Friday, and Gunn teased the soundtrack for Vol. 3 will be “a little different.”

“Just different, you know?” he said. “I think we’ll have to wait for a little while, but yeah, different.”

—Reporting by Maureen Lenker