After all the drama surrounding the Guardians of the Galaxy series in light of director James Gunn’s recent firing, the franchise’s next installment has appeared to be a distant possibility. It looks like that may very well continue to be the case as the movie’s listing has hinted at production not commencing before 2021. Assuming that were to pass, this puts Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for a 2022 release date at best, two years later than its originally intended May 2020 release.

In other news, the same listing reveals the working title of Vol. 3 as Hot Christmas. This could either just be a random title to throw viewers off or could be indicative of some story arc pulled from the comics. Either ways, the presence of a working title means pre-production has at least been considered which means the movie isn’t entirely off Marvel’s radar.

For all you know, it might be possible that Marvel and Disney end up bringing James Gunn back for directing the movie. At this point, there’s practically a non-existent chance of that happening. However, Disney may have jumped the gun in firing Gunn (no intended pun) and could be waiting for the matter to settle and cool down a bit before renegotiating a deal with Gunn himself. They have every intention of using Gunn’s script for Vol. 3 and his brother Sean Gunn even confirmed a few weeks back that the movie is definitely happening. Guess he was right.

What do you think of this development? Are you happy that Guardians is at least on track or are you skeptical of the release being pushed far too ahead? Sound off your opinions through our open platform in the comments below.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is currently without a release date. You might want to consider revisiting Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 instead.