Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn has confirmed that the upcoming third film will be the last time that the current roster of heroes will appear on screen together.

• READ MORE: ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2’ Review: A very watchable second slice of intergalactic fun

Introduced in 2014, the Guardians Of The Galaxy are Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Drax The Destroyer (Dave Bautista) Groot (Vin Diesel) Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana). By the end of Avengers Endgame, the team also included Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff).

However in a new interview, Gunn confirmed “This is the end for us, the last time people will see this team of Guardians.”

“It’s big; it’s so, so big and dark, and different from what people might be expecting it to be.” he continued, speaking on Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast.

Gunn has previously said that Vol. 3 would “probably” be his last as director. Gunn also confirmed that there would be a character death, replying to a fan: “I can’t remember ANY comic book film where someone didn’t die!”

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is set for release May 5, 2023 and will introduce Will Poulter as Adam Warlock and Chukwudi Iwuji in an unannounced role. Filming began back in November. 

It’s been a strange & long & at times challenging journey to get here, but the obstacles along the way have only made this moment more blissful. Back on set with my Guardians family for the first day of shooting #gotgvol3 pic.twitter.com/DrF8ZV8bvz

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) November 8, 2021

“It’s been a strange & long & at times challenging journey to get here, but the obstacles along the way have only made this moment more blissful,” Gunn wrote on his first day on set.

“Day 1 in the can. Honestly could not have started off better. Hit the ground running with a delicate, emotional, funny, wild, complicated scene and everyone absolutely killed,” added Pratt.

According to Gillan, the script for Guardians 3 is “brilliant and it’s emotional and it’s funny and it’s all of those things that you want.”

“(Klementieff and I) read it together and we both cried and laughed, but it was full of tears. It’s incredible, I think it’s James’ strongest work yet with the Guardians and it’s just brilliant,” she added.

Ahead of the release of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 though, the team will appear in a Holiday Special. Posting on Twitter, Gunn wrote: “In my incredibly subjective & admittedly often odd opinion, we’ll be introducing one of the greatest MCU characters of all time.”