UPDATE (6/29/15, 3:15 p.m. ET): James Gunn has taken to Twitter to confirm the news: his next movie is titled Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
Yes, the official title for the @Guardians sequel is GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2. Nice detective work, @colliderfrosty, etc! You got us!
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) June 29, 2015
ORIGINAL: We don’t know all that much about Marvel’s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which will find co-writer/director James Gunn furthering the adventures of Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and the rest of the motley crew assembled to take on powerful evildoers in last year’s sensational first installment. It’s a “more emotional” chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that will explore Star-Lord’s extraterrestrial parentage, but still unknown are the villains, new heroes and even the title.
Today, however, Collider is reporting that Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige may have slyly let slip the title of the Guardians’ next outing when he said:
“We start shooting Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 in February-March 2016.”
That’s contrary to a previous rumor, which had the movie titled Guardians 3000. It must be said, however, that this new option makes a lot more sense, as Feige was non-committal when asked later if he had just revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 was indeed the official title of the series’ second chapter.
[zerg]It would also make sense for this to be the title given the massive popularity of the film’s tongue-in-cheek soundtrack, titled Awesome Mix, Vol. 1 (the sequel has been confirmed to feature a second volume of the mixtape, put together by Star-Lord’s terminally ill mother as one last gift to her son).
Though there’s no reason Gunn and company would feel the need to unveil the sequel’s title just yet, hearing those words out of Feige’s mouth strongly suggests that we’ll eventually see posters for the movie reading Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2. And I’m totally fine with that – it’s a less-than-creative but still highly appropriate title for the follow-up.
In addition to Pratt and Saldana, the second Guardians of the Galaxy will feature returning stars Bradley Cooper (as the voice of Rocket Raccoon), Dave Bautista (as Drax the Destroyer) and Vin Diesel (as the voice of Groot). The film opens May 5, 2017.