FACING THE music

As the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s lovable bunch of a-holes prepare to bow out in style in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Total Film meets with filmmaker James Gunn and the cast to get the score on the long-awaited threequel.

- MATT MAYTUM

When Total Film asks writer/director James Gunn if he expects there to be a strong feeling of conclusion for audiences watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, he responds in characteristically straight-talking fashion. ‘I know there is, because I’ve seen it with a lot of audiences already.’

Vol. 3 has been described by Gunn as ‘the end of this iteration of the Guardians’, and everything’s pointing to a sense of finality that’s rare in the ever-evolving Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Guardians films have always been among the funniest and the most moving films of the MCU, and the team looks set to go out with a bang (and quite a few whimpers, by the sounds of it).

At the heart of this film will be Rocket, the genetically modified, wisecracking raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper). Gunn calls Rocket ‘the secret protagonist’ of this trilogy, and it’s his arc that’ll take centre stage. But there are a bunch of other Guardians to consider too. There’s leader Peter ‘Star-Lord’ Quill; treebeing of few words Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel); overly literal warrior Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista); and relative newcomers to the team Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Cosmo the Spacedog (voiced by Maria Bakalova). And that’s not even to mention Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), the badass, green-skinned assassin and object of Quill’s affections. Only, this Gamora is an alt-timeline version, the original Guardian having been sacrificed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.