It's been well established that The Avengers: Infinity War is an epic juggling exercise for directors Joe and Anthony Russo and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The movie is being made as a capstone film for all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe titles that preceded it, and as a result has more than 70 characters expected to make an appearance. A natural question that emerges from this situation is in regard to the amount of screentime that will be dedicated to the Guardians of the Galaxy - and director James Gunn recently affirmed that the team's role in the 2018 blockbuster will be "integral."
With the release of The Belko Experiment coming this Friday - the film based on a script by Gunn - Complex recently sat down with the filmmaker and used the interview to get some information about the future of the Guardians of the Galaxy in the Marvel Universe. The interviewer specifically asked about the ragtag group of space criminals and what could be teased about their part in The Avengers: Infinity War, and James Gunn promised that they have a very important part to play in the film:
You know listen, I don't think we should overstate things that it is an Avengers movie, but the Guardians are a part of the cosmic universe, they're a part of Thanos' stories, so, they are in there, and they have, not the biggest, but, an integral part to that.
Two things spring to mind reading this response. Firstly, it's not an Earth-shattering revelation simply because of the big clue that is the title of the movie (note that it's not called Guardians of the Galaxy: Infinity War). That being said, this blockbuster has long been anticipated as the film that introduces the likes of Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket and Groot to the likes of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Hulk, so it's hard to imagine Marvel shorting audiences on that experience by having the interstellar heroes only make cameo-level appearances.
The Avengers: Infinity War is in production now, and while we still don't know exactly how the first interaction between Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the Guardians of the Galaxy will go, we couldn't be more excited to see it play out. We'll surely have more updates for you about the project over the course of the next year as principal photography plays out. In the meantime, fans can get ready for the return of Star-Lord and company on the big screen when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters on May 5th, and also get a taste of James Gunn's particular brand of horrific mayhem this Friday with The Belko Experiment.
