James Gunn Says Guardians 3 Takes Place After Thor: Love and Thunder

Now that Marvel has laid out its plans for a massive Phase 4 at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, along with some teases to come later, there’s been some questions as to how the new films will correlate with where the MCU was left off after the events of Avengers: Endgame and, to a lesser extent, Spider-Man: Far From Home.

One of the big questions is how Thor: Love and Thunder will factor into Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, given that Thor was last seen palling around with the Guardians at the end of Endgame. After posting a congratulatory message on Instagram about Endgame’s box-office haul, James Gunn answered a question from user @dumb_rush, confirming that his third Guardians film will take place after the events of Love and Thunder.

For convenience, the exchange was screen-capped by Twitter user @Broadlock0.

This is nice to know I guess… 🙂@ManaByte @DanielRPK @_CharlesMurphy @thomas_polito pic.twitter.com/InH75bhVhd

— Finn (@_Broadlock_) July 22, 2019

While Marvel has (mostly) adhered to its linear timeline throughout Phases 1-3, it will be interesting to find out if we’ll see a Guardians cameo in Love and Thunder, or at the very least, what will lead Chris Hemsworth’s Thor off their ship and into the events of his fourth solo film.

RELATED: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Won’t Be Titled Asgardians of the Galaxy

Unfortunately, the third Guardians of the Galaxy outing won’t be a part of Phase 4, as Gunn was fired from Disney last summer, only to be re-hired this past March. While he will be returning to the Guardians franchise eventually, he took a job writing and directing The Suicide Squad for Warner Bros. in the meantime.

Thor: Love and Thunder opens in theaters November 5, 2021.