Chris Pratt gave reporters a yes this week, but the yes had a condition stapled to it, and the condition is the only part worth repeating.
Asked about a fourth Guardians of the Galaxy, Pratt told MovieZine it would need James Gunn directing it, not Marvel, not a committee, Gunn. That should be the whole pitch. Guardians is the one Marvel series that actually ended, and a fourth movie built without the man who wrote that ending would spend the only clean goodbye Marvel has left.
The ending is the asset, not a problem to solve. Vol. 3 hands every lead a destination. Quill goes home to his grandfather. Rocket becomes leader. Mantis leaves to build a life of her own. Nebula and Drax stay on Knowhere. Gamora rejoins the Ravagers. Groot speaks. IGN called it out directly: “The ending to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is unusual for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in that it’s actually an ending.”
Compare that to how Marvel treats its other big finish. The studio rereleased Avengers: Endgame in September with four new minutes, then stacked Doomsday with Chris Evans back as Steve Rogers and Chris Hemsworth back as Thor, both confirmed for the Dec. 18 release. Marvel keeps reopening endings because they make money. Vol. 3 made $845.6 million worldwide on a $250 million budget. The only thread the studio left itself is the one it wrote on purpose, a title card reading “Star-Lord Will Return.”
Pratt is loyal to the director, not the costume. He didn’t ask for a franchise. He named why the franchise worked: “He directed all three movies, and that’s pretty rare.” Gunn made it rare by actually closing the book, telling Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast in 2022, “This is the end for us. This is the last time people will see this team of Guardians.” Every door that closes in the movie traces back to that promise.
Pratt’s own language this week makes the same point from another angle. He said he hadn’t talked to Gunn since the DC news broke, adding that anything involving the two of them “could always become a headline.” That’s a man protecting a friendship, not lobbying for a product. There’s a wrinkle in this that nobody at Marvel will enjoy: Jeremy Latcham, named president and chief creative officer of DC Studios on Nov. 9 and set to start Dec. 1 reporting to Skydance’s Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, was an executive producer on the first Guardians of the Galaxy alongside Gunn. The guy who helped build Rocket is about to run the studio that just pushed Gunn out the door.
The calendar makes this a 2029 conversation, not a 2027 one. Marvel’s board is full through Doomsday on Dec. 18, then Secret Wars as the only Marvel Studios release of 2027, then X-Men opening the next era on May 5, 2028. Gunn’s board isn’t empty either: Superman: Man of Tomorrow lands July 9, 2027, and he’s already writing another DC project behind it. Gunn called the entire process on Man of Tomorrow, in his own words, “the best filmmaking experience of my life.” A man who just said that is not clearing his schedule for a Marvel rebound tour.
Add it up and there’s no open window on either calendar before 2029. That’s not a setback. That’s the first date that actually makes sense, the same way Marvel left its own post-credits promises dangling for years when the timing wasn’t right.
The honest pushback is real. Gunn said this was finished, and two of his leads backed him up. Dave Bautista said he’d never play Drax again just for a paycheck, and Zoe Saldana has said Vol. 3 was it for her Gamora too.
That’s an argument against reassembling the old team for a reunion lap. It’s not an argument against the director who wrote them out with care in the first place. The mid-credits scene already handed Rocket a new crew. A Gunn-directed Vol. 4 doesn’t need Drax or Gamora standing next to Quill to work. It needs Gunn.
Pratt says Marvel has already taken “hard action” to honor the promise that Star-Lord returns. Fine. The next move isn’t a press tour or a MovieZine quote. It’s a script, handed to one filmmaker, dated sometime after Secret Wars clears the deck.
The title card can wait a couple more years. A Guardians sequel without Gunn behind the camera can’t be taken back.
