If you followed our San Diego Comic Con 2019 coverage, you’ll notice that there was a clear absence of any news concerning the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film. Don’t worry, we didn’t overlook it. The next Guardians movie will not be in Phase Four. However, GotG Vol. 3 director James Gunn has confirmed that Thor: Love and Thunder takes place before the third GotG movie.

A few days ago, James had uploaded a picture in celebration of Avengers: Endgame becoming the highest-grossing film of all time. A fan commented on the picture and asked the following:

Seeing as how Love and Thunder will be the last film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it now makes sense why we didn’t get to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on that huge MCU Phase Four timeline image. I’m hoping GotG Vol. 3 will be the first movie of Phase Five.

Endgame ended with Thor following the Guardians, which is where we’re getting the “Asguardians” jokes. If the next Thor movie happens before the next Guardians movie, it would be sensible to theorize that Thor splits up with the Guardians thus allowing the Guardians to have their own movie without having Thor steal their thunder (pun intended).

The Guardian’s current biggest problem is that they need to reconcile with a Gamora that doesn’t recognize them. The new (old? wait no, past?) Gamora comes from a time where she was still loyal to Thanos and so there’s going to be a lot that she has to catch up to.