Marvel only announced Guardians of the Galaxy 2 during the big Phase 3 reveal a couple of weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean director James Gunn isn’t considering a possible third film.  Gunn just revealed that while working on the first Guardians of the Galaxy he was also gearing up for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and “perhaps even beyond that.” Per usual, it’s not a sure thing until Marvel deems it so, but considering Guardians of the Galaxy is currently the highest earner of the year and is an all-around fantastic film, at this point, a third go-around seems possible.  Hit the jump for more on that and Gunn’s experience making the first film.  Guardians of the Galaxy is due on DVD and Blu-ray on December 9th and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 hits theaters on May 5, 2017.

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Image via Marvel

Here’s what Gunn told The Playlist about the plot of Guardians of the Galaxy 2:

“We open up on a ‘Mission: Impossible’ scenario where all the characters die … No, to be honest, I had the basic story for number two while I was working on number one, and perhaps even beyond that.  So it’s gonna answer a lot of questions that are proposed in the first one, and we’ll be able to get to know some of the characters we didn’t get to know in the first one a little bit more, and we might meet a few new characters too.”

Clearly he doesn’t flat-out say, “I’m working on Guardians 3,” but it’s still nice to know he’s got long-term plans brewing whether they’re for more Guardians of the Galaxy movies, a spinoff or perhaps some sort of Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover project.  Based on what Gunn said about making the move from a low budget production like Super to Guardians, it seems as though he wouldn’t mind sticking with the MCU for a while:

“Generally I like making big movies!  It suits me, especially when I can make them like ‘Guardians’ where I’m actually loving what I’m telling.  I wouldn’t want to go off and do something I wasn’t excited about, but luckily I’m excited by big pop things, I’m just like that.  And I like being able to mix it with something that’s a little edgier.  I’m pretty lucky … I made ‘Super’ for $3 million, and that was filmed in 24 days.  And that $3 million dollars went to a lot of things other than what shows up on screen.  Once you get done with the unions and everything else, that’s just like the basic cost of what you can make a movie for.  And it was not easy, it was a pretty harrowing experience, especially when you work the way that I do — I’m not a guy who goes in and finds the moment, I’m a guy who plans everything.  I’m happy that I did it, in part because it got me ‘Guardians,’ but it was pretty difficult.”

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Image via Marvel Studios

While discussing budgetary limitations and how they require him to think in ways he wouldn’t normally think, Gunn also noted:

“It’s a series of cheats.  And ‘Guardians’ was very much like that.  I very much knew that there were certain things about ‘Guardians’ that needed to stay the Marvel way, but then figuring out a way around them to do my own thing was I think part of what made me have so much fun with the movie.  So there’s always those things, whether they’re budgetary or otherwise.  And even on ‘Guardians,’ there was a lot of budgetary constraints.”

Gunn also expressed interest in jumping into TV, too:

“I think if I were to do something in a lower budget, I’d probably do it in another medium.  I would be more interested in doing something like that on television — something I haven’t done … But I have commitment issues in everything, so I don’t think I could really be a showrunner, but the idea of kicking something off is appealing, or doing a 6-12 episode self-contained series … Definitely ‘True Detective’ was a great example of one director, one story.  It worked fantastically well.”

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