After months of speculation, James Gunn has officially announced that he will return to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Gunn took to his Facebook page on Monday to explain his reasoning in a lengthy post that pretty clearly laid out this wasn’t a decision he reach easily.

Before I was able to honestly answer this, I needed to know it was, in my heart, what I truly felt called to do. There is a history in Hollywood of haphazard endings to trilogies, and I didn’t want to become a part of that dishonorable tradition of pretending the third one doesn’t exist. I couldn’t do it for the money, and I couldn’t do it because it was what other people wanted me to do. I needed to do it because it was what I needed to do. I have never made choices in my career based on anything other than passion and love for the stories and characters, and I didn’t want to start now.

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In the end, my love for Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord, Yondu, Mantis, Drax, and Nebula – and some of the other forthcoming heroes – goes deeper than you guys can possibly imagine, and I feel they have more adventures to go on and things to learn about themselves and the wonderful and sometimes terrifying universe we all inhabit. And, like in both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, we will work on creating the story that goes beyond what you expect.

More power to him. The first Guardians is easily one of the best Marvel films, and the second one looks to follow suit.

Gunn did go a bit into what the atmosphere of the MCU would be by the time we get to this third film, and it’s interesting.

Much of what’s happened in the MCU for the past ten or so years has been leading, in a big way, to the Avengers’ Infinity War. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will happen after all that. It will conclude the story of this iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and help catapult both old and new Marvel characters into the next ten years and beyond. I will be working side-by-side with Kevin Feige and the gang to help design where these stories go, and make sure the future of the Marvel Cosmic Universe is as special and authentic and magical as what we have created so far.

It sounds as though things will be quite different following Infinity War, and that alone is intriguing.

Now… where does Peter get a third mix tape?

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 hits theaters on May 5.