Even as Guardians of the Galaxy rages on in theaters, director James Gunn already has his eyes on the sequel.

In an extensive interview with Empire, the writer/director spilled the beans on some of his plans for the 2017 follow-up, including the big mystery surrounding Star-Lord's true parentage. Who is Peter Quill's father? We'll find out when Guardians of the Galaxy 2 rolls around, but for now, Gunn is happy to confirm it's not J'son of Spartax, as it is in Marvel comics lore.

"There have been a lot of documents passed around about who Peter Quill's father is between a select two or three of us," he said. "That's been part of the plan since the beginning, that's something I had to work out before we shot the screenplay. We wanted to make sure Yondu's place in everything made sense and it does, so it's all very specific stuff. It's definitely not the character who it is in the comics, I'll say that much."

It sounds like Quill's father will be a major factor in the sequel, but another Guardians heavyweight could be sitting out of the picture. According to Gunn, Thanos will only appear in the sequel "if he helps our story and he will not show up at all if he is not."

"Thanos is not the most important thing in Guardians 2, that's for damn sure," he said. "There's the Guardians themselves and other threats the Guardians are going to be facing that are not Thanos."

Read the full Empire interview for more, including Gunn's thoughts on Howard the Duck.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 arrives on July 28, 2017.