Thor: Love and Thunder writer-director Taika Waititi wanted to make sure he did right by the way the Guardians of the Galaxy have been portrayed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far. As such, the film enlisted the services of someone who knows the characters very well: James Gunn.
"James had always been supportive of me, when I first came into Marvel on [Thor:] Ragnarok." Waititi said in an interview with Total Film magazine. "But his style is very different. He's very particular about his scripts, and about the way his characters speak. Obviously I wrote the script, and I always knew we were going to kind of just hand those scenes to him, and say, 'How do these characters talk? Have I missed a character?' Because there are about 400 characters in the scene. He would go through it, and go, 'Groot wouldn't say something like that. He'd be a bit more like this.' So he was very helpful in that way. And, yeah, shooting with them was really good. But man, there's a lot of them."
Gunn, of course, wrote and directed the 2014 Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy, which served to introduce the titular team of space-faring misfits to the MCU. He subsequently returned to do the same for its sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which hit theaters in 2017. Gunn will round out his Marvel trilogy with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is slated for release on May 5, 2023. That said, the Guardians themselves have certainly kept busy in the interim.
In fact, Love and Thunder isn't the first time Gunn has been consulted on another Marvel project involving the Guardians. Gunn actually wrote additional dialogue for the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War, which saw characters he brought to life meet other Marvel heroes like Thor, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange for the first time. When audiences last saw the Guardians, they were headed back into space, joined by Thor, after the climax of 2019's Avengers: Endgame.
The fourth Thor film and the second to be helmed by Waititi, Love and Thunder picks up where Endgame left off, showing the continued adventures of the so-called "Asgardians of the Galaxy." Thor (Chris Hemsworth) decides it's time to leave violence in the past and live a life of peace, with the film's promotional material suggesting that this means parting ways with the Guardians.
However, the God of Thunder is forced out of retirement when a new threat emerges in the form of Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who -- as his name implies -- isn't particularly fond of gods. In order to stand up to Gorr, Thor joins forces with ex-lover Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who now wields Mjolnir as the Mighty Thor, as well as King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Waititi).
Meanwhile, while Gunn's next Marvel feature isn't due to bow until about 10 months after Love and Thunder, fans actually won't have to wait that long to see the Guardians in live-action again. Members of the team are set to star in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (also written and directed by Gunn), which is expected to debut on Disney+ this December. Gunn has confirmed that the Holiday Special takes place in between Love and Thunder and Guardians 3.
See the Guardians of the Galaxy in action when Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters on Friday, July 8.
Source: Total Film