James Gunn is a very busy man. Fresh off the release of his film The Suicide Squad, Gunn has announced via social media that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has officially started shooting!

The tweet features a picture of Gunn, who is both the writer and director of GOTG 3, posing with Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, and Sean Gunn, who have all appeared in previous installments in the series, as well as Will Poulter, who was recently announced to be in the film. The picture also features Chukwudi Iwuji, who will appear in Gunn’s upcoming Peacemaker show, but his connection to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is not yet known.

In the tweet, Gunn says:

“It’s been a strange & long & at times challenging journey to get here, but the obstacles along the way have only made this moment more blissful. Back on set with my Guardians family for the first day of shooting #gotgvol3

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Image via Marvel

Related: James Gunn Reveals His Filmmaking Process With 'Guardians of the Galaxy 3' Storyboards

As Gunn says, it has been a long road towards this film getting made. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was first announced all the way back in April 2017, before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 had even come out. Gunn later, in January 2018, announced that the film would be released in 2020. However, production hit some trouble when Gunn was publicly fired in July later that same year following the surfacing of some old tweets by Gunn. The film then finally got back on track when Gunn was rehired less than a year later in March 2019. Plot details on the third Guardians movie are scarce, but we do know that Poulter is playing Adam Warlock, whose arrival was teased at the end of GOTG Vol. 2 in a post-credit scene featuring Elizabeth Debicki’s Ayesha.

Along with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Gunn is also working with Marvel to write and direct the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which will be coming to Disney+ in December 2022, and will serve as an executive producer on I Am Groot, a Disney+ show about the Guardians character.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which also stars the voices of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper, is set to hit theaters on May 5, 2023. Check out Gunn’s full tweet below.