Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is officially completed ahead of its May release

 Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 is finished and on track for its release next month, according to its creator.

The eagerly-anticipated Marvel film follows the Holiday Special that came to Disney+ last year, which was set between the events of Thor: Love and Thunder and the third Guardians film. Creator James Gunn shared an update on the film, which wrapped filming in 2022, to let fans know it is complete. He wrote on Twitter: "Finalized the sound mix for #GotGVol3 last night & I am just so incredibly excited to share this movie with everyone; I feel teary-eyed & supremely grateful for this journey. "Despite the downs among the ups, what a wonderful experience these past ten years have been."

The film will see Chris Pratt reprise his role as Peter Quill/Star-Lord to set out on one last mission to take down the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji). Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), Groot (Vin Diesel), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) will also return for a final time. The soundtrack for the film was released yesterday (April 5) and featured one major change. Instead of its usual '70s hits, for the third installment Gunn selected anthems from various decades after Quill found a Microsoft Zune at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Gunn told Rolling Stone: "It was very, very difficult. I felt very uncomfortable picking out songs and making sure that this was the right soundtrack. "Do I move onto just all '80s songs? Do I use all '90s songs? Or do I do what a Zune would actually have  songs from different eras, which is what I ended up doing." The director also revealed the third film would be the longest in the franchise so far. When responding to a fan's question about the film, Gunn confirmed it would be "around" two and a half hours long. However, he went on to promise that despite the long runtime, "not a second is wasted".

He continued: "There’s no fat. 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)."