The MCU timeline is more of a tangled mess than a straight line at this point, and the lives of the Guardians of the Galaxy are no exception to that. While the cosmic team’s first movie was simply set in its release year (2014), Vol. 2 also takes place later that same year despite being released in 2017. Things get way more complicated thanks to Avengers: Endgame shifting the present-day forward to 2023, meaning Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 probably occurs in 2025.
The problem here, though, is that this leaves us an enormous swathe of time where we have no idea what the Guardians got up to. This perplexing mystery was fielded by one Redditor on the r/MarvelStudios sub, who questioned whether these gaps in the characters’ lives could potentially be filled in a spinoff TV series. Not to mention criticizing the decision to have Rocket forget Mantis’ name in Infinity War when he’d actually known her for years by that time.
Unfortunately, commenters aren’t holding out much hope for a Guardians Disney Plus show. As for Rocket forgetting Mantis’ name, that might be one of the things the Russos did that James Gunn isn’t a fan of.
The correct answer to what the Guardians got up to during those four years might be the most obvious: nothing much.
Really, this question could also be extended to include the two-year gap between Endgame and Vol. 3. While The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special saw them settling into Knowhere after buying it from The Collector, Thor: Love and Thunder offers our one big clue on what the team does on their “regular days” — going around, planet to planet, saving the day. Taika Waititi’s much-maligned fourqueel might not have treated the Guardians all that well but it did help us get a feel for what the gang does when not rescuing the galaxy from certain doom and/or teaming up with the Avengers.