Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will ignore Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor: Love and Thunder is out now in theaters, and while it may mark the next bombastic chapter for the God of Thunder, the Guardians of the Galaxy got the short shrift. Thor 4 begins with Hemsworth’s Norse deity going on universe-spanning missions with the Guardians, but that group quickly exits the film after only a few minutes of screen time. For all Thor: Love and Thunder’s zaniness, it was surprising that the movie seemed so uninterested in making use of arguably the funniest posse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

According to a new report from The Direct, it sounds like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director James Gunn is equally uninterested in acknowledging the Guardians’ adventures with Thor. Gunn confirmed during an interview at San Diego Comic-Con last weekend that Thor had no impact on the upcoming third Guardians of the Galaxy movie or its titular team of heroes. “No, I wrote the script without ever thinking that they were ever going to be with Thor, so it hasn’t affected them at all,” Gunn told Screen Rant.

While this is a little odd in terms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s overall continuity, it makes some sense from a production standpoint. There are a large number of MCU projects in production at any one time; considering that both Thor 4 and Guardians 3 were being worked on simultaneously, it would have been difficult to keep any sort of continuity between them.

Thor and the Guardians will kinda-sorta cross over in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

Previously, Gunn let fans down easy when he responded to a Twitter post speculating that Thor and the Guardians could have had a more prominent adventure together. “I appreciate the love but Thor was never going to be in Vol 3,” the director said.

Thor or no Thor, Gunn will no doubt have his hands fall with the Guardians of the Galaxy for the forseeable future. The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is coming out this winter, and Vol. 3 is slated to come out on May 5, 2023. Thor’s screaming goats are apparently going to crop up in the holiday special…so at least there’s that.

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