Gunning for Greatness: Why the MCU Is One Big Headache for James Gunn's 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

It must be a pretty sweet deal being director #JamesGunn, saddling up to the cinematic greats and being known as one of the men who helped build the #MCU. With two hugely successful Guardians of the Galaxy films under his belt, a third on the way, and the difficult job of rocking out to classic songs all day as you read comic books, it certainly beats being Joel Schumacher. However, as Gunn delves deep into the history of Marvel and unearths old Guardians story arcs, he has discovered that there is one major drawback to crafting your own universe.

I Canon Believe It

Speaking to the audience at the #E3 World Building Panel in LA, Gunn revealed that it's those pesky plot-hole nitpickers who are giving him restless nights and one helluva headache when it comes to his third Guardians film:

"I'm writing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' and I finished the first draft of the treatment yesterday. I'm excited about it. I feel really great about it. But there's one little thing that I had in the first movie. Now, Marvel Canon — MCU — is crazy. There's the 616 universe, which is the Marvel Comics Universe, which people get hung up on that canon, and then there's the MCU, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has a separate canon, inspired by but not exactly the same as the 616."

At least there is some good news in that the first draft of the film is already completed. However, if you recall ABC's #Lost, there was a whole continuity team dedicated to keeping the intricate time traveling and flashback storylines on track. And here we have poor Gunn, all on his lonesome and trying to rein in an entire galaxy. Looking back at the first #GuardiansoftheGalaxy film, it sounds like the filmmaker may have shot himself in the foot moving forward:

"I did something in the first movie of 'Guardians,' where it was in the background but it was distinctly there, and people know that it's there. And I'm like, 'Goddammit.' Because I have a really good storytelling reason for breaking the canon, and I stayed up last night figuring out if I'm gonna do it or not. I still don't know."

The Devil's In The Details

Gunn then revealed to the E3 panel that the scene he is specifically talking about is when we see our motley mob being assigned to their new home at interstellar prison the Kyln. If you recall, we saw the rap sheets of our antiheroes flash up on the screen, à la The Usual Suspects. While it may be only a minute detail, there is clearly one piece of that information in need of retconning for the purposes of Vol. 3. Gunn explains:

"The Nova Corps has information about each of the characters coming up on their machinery. Those things are something that your average viewer doesn't see at all. But there's a lot of background I put into those things about who they've worked with, where they are from, what's going on. And it's one of those things that I'm thinking about changing."

It's anyone's guess on what exactly Gunn plans on changing, but with a possibility of exploring Drax the Destroyer's family, could it be to do with his daughter? Elsewhere, Vol. 3 is once again expected to be Star-Lord centric, so could #ChrisPratt's character be hiding something on his rap sheet?

Any comic book history is difficult enough to shrink down to a two-hour film, but when you start talking about the likes of #Marvel and DC, it is nearly impossible. As Vol. 3 sets out to end our current lineup of heroes and catapult the various iterations of the team into a possibly ongoing future, changing one tiny piece of information isn't the end of the world — or is it? Prepare your trolling keyboard, nerds!