James Gunn confirms 'Guardians of the Galaxy 3' script has been completed

James Gunn has completed work on the script for the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

The 54-year-old filmmaker is returning to the Marvel fold with a trilogy-closing outing for his oddball superheroes, after he was fired in 2018 when controversial tweets from the past re-emerged.

Read more: Gunn was offered a Superman movie by DC

He’s currently hard at work on finishing The Suicide Squad — which he signed on to make for rival superhero studio DC after his Marvel departure — but progress is moving forward on the return of Star-Lord and his friends.

Gunn confirmed to a fan on Twitter that his script for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 has been completed and that the movie is crewing up, ready to start pre-production in earnest.

In a follow-up tweet, Gunn said that “very little” had to change from the version of the script he was working on before he was sacked.

He added that he is given largely free rein by Marvel and said the addition of Thanos into the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie is the only time the studio has intervened in his work.

Read more: Gunn sticks up for superhero movies amid Scorsese row

The Guardians were last seen in Avengers: Endgame, with Thor appearing to join them as they headed off into the cosmos after helping the rest of the Avengers to defeat Thanos and his army.

It’s unclear whether Thor will appear in the currently undated Guardians 3, with his fourth solo movie Thor: Love and Thunder set to release in 2022.

The stars of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise have been hugely supportive of Gunn and have praised his story, with Nebula actor Karen Gillan saying last year that she had read a “wonderful” iteration of the script.

This movie is likely to be the last to feature the current team, according to Gunn, and he said it is also likely to be his final outing with the franchise.

Read more: Who’s who in The Suicide Squad?

Meanwhile, Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is rattling along at full speed en route to its August 2021 release date.

Gunn has described the DC project as “by far the most fun I have ever had making a movie”.

The movie is set to be R-rated and the filmmaker has repeatedly warned fans not to get too attached to its enormous ensemble cast, suggesting they may well be living up to their name this time around.

Watch: Behind the scenes of The Suicide Squad