With just under two months to go until the May debut of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, director James Gunn has remained fairly active in social media discussions about the film despite being engrossed in his new role as co-chair of DC Studios. The final installment in Gunn’s Guardians trilogy promises to be an emotional roller coaster as it brings an end to the story of this iteration of the team and not every member is expected to survive their encounter with the film’s villain, Chukwudi Iwuji‘s High Evolutionary.
Gunn has consistently praised Iwujij’s performance in the film and recently took to Instagram to hype the High Evolutionary, who is responsible for the experiments/torture of Rocket. Gunn’s post simply teased “Can’t wait for you all to meet this guy” along with a creepy picture of High Evolutionary’s face stretched over some enhancements but fans took the chance to interact with Gunn to ask about the film’s runtime.
Though he didn’t give an exact runtime for the sequel, Gunn did respond that “It’s longer than 1 & 2.” As can be seen here, Guardians of the Galaxy checked in at 2 hours and 2 minutes and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 at 2 hours and 17 minutes, a runtime that included 5 stingers. Gunn’s statement means that not only will Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 be the longest Guardians film but also the longest film of his directorial career and one of the ten longest MCU films. That checks out as there’s a lot to do in the film. Time will have to be spent on exposition about the High Evolutionary and Adam Warlock, exploring the new dynamics of the Guardians with a time-displaced Gamora, killing someone(s) and setting the stage for the future of the team. Given all that, a 2 hour and 18+ minute runtime seems fair.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 debuts in theaters on May 5th!
