James Gunn wanted $500 million to make his perfect Guardians finale

Director James Gunn is seemingly departing from the Marvel universe with the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy 3. After two fantastic movies in the MCU, Gunn is looking to finish the sub-franchise with a bang.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 has been in development for quite a while. While Gunn initially had a script following the release of the second movie, the script has seen several rewrites. But will the final script be Gunn's perfect finale?

James Gunn wanted half-a-billion for Guardians 3

In an interview with Collider, Gunn explained that he’s struggled with budget constraints for the upcoming Marvel movie. While Marvel movies tend to have large budgets, Gunn’s ideas for Guardians 3 were especially expensive.

The director stated that that he always writes projects with budget in mind. However, to create his ideal series finale, one draft would’ve required “half a billion dollars”. This would be more 36% more expensive than the most expensive Marvel movie, Avengers: Age of Ultron, which cost $365 million.

“I innately think about budget while I'm writing, always,” Gunn said. “Even something as big budgeted as (GOTG) Volume 3 is still a struggle. You know, it's still a struggle to make it fit the budget because you want a movie to be half a billion dollars. If I had half a billion dollars, I could kind of do pretty close to what I want.”

Gunn told the outlet that there always compromises due to budget restraints. Even the most expensive movies have to make some changes. He said:

“I'm always having to think about budget and make concessions because of budget, but oftentimes it leads to good things. You oftentimes are forced to rethink something and you have to come up with a creative solution."

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What is Guardian of the Galaxy Vol. 3 budget?

Currently, no budget has been revealed for the upcoming James Gunn Marvel movie. However, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is expected to be one of the more pricey Marvel projects in recent years.

The last movie, Guardians 2, was made on a rather big budget of $200 million. With the third movie’s massive scope and scale, it’s expected to be a more expensive movie. Could it rival the budget for Avengers: Endgame?

The movie is expected to release on May 5^th, 2023.