James Gunn reassures Marvel movie viewers after announcing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 running time

Director has issued ‘promise’ to concerned fans

James Gunn has reassured Marvel fans over the running time of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.

The director, who is now running the show at DC alongside Peter Safran, is currently finishing work on his final film in the Marvel franchise.

In recent days, a rumour regarding the film’s running time has been circulated on social media. Gunn has now stepped in to confirm that the film will be the longest Guardians yet.

While saying it’s not “exact”, Gunn said the film’s length is “around” 149 minutes, or two hours and 29 minutes.

This will make it the longest Guardians of the Galaxy film to date, with the first one, released in 2014, being 122 minutes and Vol 2 (2017) being 137 minutes.

Writing on Twitter, Gunn “promised” fans that “not a second is wasted”.

There’s no fat,” he said, adding: “It was necessary to experience the full arc for every major Guardians character, not only for this film, but for the trilogy (or, I should say, trilogy plus).”

Gunn’s “trilogy plus” comment was referring to other films and specials starring Guardians characters, including the Avengers films, Thor: Love and Thunder, and the Holiday Special that was released in 2022.

James Gunn makes ‘promise’ to Marvel fans about ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3’s running time (Twitter)

In a follow-up tweet, the filmmaker also explained that the film’s running time isn’t precise at the moment as “the length of end credits are being estimated”.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 will be released in cinemas on 5 May.