"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" director James Gunn recently revealed that the "Guardians" films are "unconnected" to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that they are basically unhampered by the timeline of events in the MCU. Indeed, the only thing that tied 2014's "Guardians of the Galaxy" to the MCU was the looming presence of the purple villain Thanos and one of the Infinity Stones.
Apart from these two important elements, no other characters, events, or objects from the previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films were shown or referred to in "Guardians of the Galaxy." This was perhaps one of the reasons the film was able to stand out from the rest of the MCU and may have been key to its becoming both a critical and a commercial success. Fortunately, Gunn recently revealed that this will also be the case with the upcoming "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2."
In a recent Twitter exchange with fans, Gunn revealed that he is unencumbered by the goings-on in the Universe the Guardians share with the Avengers, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Spider-Man. And because he doesn't have to deal with all these other characters and the myriad events they are involved in, he doesn't have to worry about maintaining continuity. "I'm so out in space unconnected at this point, outside of Thanos in Vol 1, I've never had to deal with even a single moment of continuity," he wrote. Slash Film points out that while this may be true for "Guardians of the Galaxy" and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," things may change after 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War," in which the Guardians will be joining forces with the other MCU fighters.
Meanwhile, Gunn recently answered one of the biggest questions fans have had about "Guardians of the Galaxy," specifically, how Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) came to have a cassette player inside his spacecraft, the Milano. "We see his Grandpa put it in his backpack," Gunn initially answered, before followers clarified that it was the built-in cassette player they were referring to and not the handheld cassette player Star-Lord is so attached to.
"He made it, largely with parts from junkers," the director explained, adding, "You wonder about this and not about flying a ship that travels between planets in hours???" "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" is slated to hit theaters May 5, 2017.
