Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3is supposed to be James Gunn’s grand sendoff for the group, and it looks like wrapping up the story will require plenty of time. New sources point to the threequel being one of Marvel Studios' longest movies.
Scheduled to come out in six weeks,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3is gearing up to be an emotional rollercoaster for many Marvel fans, as the trailers have hinted atRocket Raccoon’s traumatic originsin the High Evolutionary’s lab. The films will be Gunn’s final MCU project before moving on to the arduous task of trying to fix the DC Universe and directingSuperman Legacy, meaning there’s a lot to go through to avoid leaving any loose ends.
RELATED:Marvel’s Midnight Suns' Storm DLC Could Fill an Entire X-Men Campaign
To do so, Gunn will need up 2 hours and 29 minutes worth of footage. Screenings forGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3have begun going up online on sites likeAtomand theater chains across the globe, revealing the 149-minute runtime. That number would bring the last entry intheGuardians of the Galaxytrilogyup to number four among the MCU’s longest movies, tied withAvengers: Infinity Warand only beaten byEternals(156 minutes),Black Panther: Wakanda Forever(161 minutes), andAvengers: Endgame(181 minutes).
It’s no secret that Marvel Studios' films have been getting longer as time has passed. However,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3barely edges outSpider-Man: No Way Home(148 minutes) andCaptain America: Civil War(147 minutes) by a couple of minutes. Whether this lengthy screen time will translate into the compelling closing chapter Gunn has teased the film remains to be seen.
Perhaps more intriguing is whether the movie will lead to theGuardians of the Galaxy appearing in future Marvel moviesor ifVol. 3is indeed the swan song for this ragtag bunch of superheroes. Even if Chukwudi Iwuji’s High Evolutionary doesn’t survive the movie, Adam Warlock is an important character for the MCU’s cosmic side, and having at least one of the Guardians brief other heroes of his existence is still a possibility.
Suffice it to say the runtime does not correlate with quality in the MCU. However, withGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3being such a highly-anticipated film, the studio probably has high hopes for it. Aside fromGunn’s finalGuardians of the Galaxymovie, Marvel Studios' 2023 slate looks shaky as more delay rumors have continued to pop up in recent weeks.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3will premiere on June 11, 2025.
MORE:Guardians Of The Galaxy 3: 7 Things You Need To Know About Adam Warlock
