Guardians of the Galaxy 2: Director James Gunn Reveals Early Plot Details

Guardians of the Galaxy hits cinemas today and it's on course to be yet another success for Marvel Studios. In fact Marvel is so confident of its success and so happy with its quality, that it has already green-lit a sequel for 2017.

Director and writer James Gunn had a monumental task in assembling Marvel's riskiest film ever, adapting a little-known comic for modern audiences and making a talking bipedal, gun-toting raccoon work on the big screen.

He and the whole Guardians team have succeeded, so soon attentions will turn to the sequel in three years' time, and Gunn has already given us an idea of where it might go.

Speaking to FilmDivider Gunn said: "I know a lot of where I want to go. I have a lot of ideas for stories and characters that are going to appear, and there are documents written up, that some people have, about Peter Quill's (Chris Pratt) father and his relationship, a lot of stuff about Yondu and a lot of stuff about Drax that nobody knows."

Exploring Quill's human father and his relationship with adoptive father Yondu (Michael Rooker) certainly seems like a ripe topic. It could also be a way of bringing the Guardians a little closer to Earth, should that be where Marvel wants things to end up.

In a separate interview Gunn said a little more on the subject. "Kevin Feige [Marvel Studios president] has stuff. I wrote up a lot. He knows all the stuff and if I died tomorrow they could go make a movie," he said.

"They could write the story of Peter Quill's father and it would all be there. I think Yondu is a very important character, a really important character in this universe, and I think Nebula [Karen Gillan] is really important too and so I think we'll see more of both of those characters."

Nebula plays an important role in the Infinity Gauntlet comic which Marvel is building up to adapting in (presumably) Avengers 3. Guardians 2 will be one of the last films before that film is made, so making Nebula a big part of that makes sense.

Gunn also talked about other potential facets of the sequel that he has been exploring.

"There are a lot of things that are part of the overall schematic that already exist, not to mention a lot of stuff about all of the cultures. There's a lot of stuff about Xandarian and Kree culture that I've written down or I have in my head, as well as Krylorians and Ravagers."

Guardians of the Galaxy is out now, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is set for 28 July 2017.