Chris Pratt, James Gunn tease 3rd, final and most emotional 'Guardians' movie: 'The end of an era for us'

Of the trailers rumored to debut during Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con panel Saturday night, there was one that was inevitably going to bring out the waterworks among the 6,000-plus fans in attendance: Late star Chadwick Boseman’s send-off in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

But well before Marvel chief Kevin Feige and company unveiled a tearjerking first look at Black Panther 2, it was the trailer for James Gunn’s trilogy closer Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 that elicited sniffling (and beyond) across the San Diego Convention Center’s sprawling Hall H.

“Saying I cried isn’t even a compliment anymore. I bawled,” tweeted Clerks filmmaker and self-described “clown prince of Comic-Con” Kevin Smith.

Set to the reliably evocative sounds of “Do You Realize?” by the Flaming Lips, the sneak peek teased an origin story for Rocket the Racoon (Baby Rocket?) and introduced Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock — but beyond anything, promised a deeply emotional swan song for Chris Pratt’s Star Lord and his beloved band of intergalactic oddballs.

Disney/Marvel hasn’t officially released the trailer yet, but in interviews with Yahoo Entertainment after the panel, James Gunn, Pratt, Poulter and co-stars Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff and Sean Gunn (most of whom admitted they were crying as well) talked about the film’s poignance (watch above).

“It’s about the emotions, it’s about the characters and their journeys and how they’re uncovering truths about themselves, and it’s not what people expect,” James Gunn tells us. “Nothing is neat; nothing is tied up with a bow. It is the end of the story for these characters.”

“It’s such a beautiful story, and it’s kind of the end of an era for us,” Gillan says.

“There’s a sadness in the movie,” admits Sean Gunn.

“I think this will be the most emotional Guardians yet, for sure,” Poulter adds.

“Don’t do any emotional preparation, just go see it, and you’ll see why people were moved,” Pratt advises. “It’s an emotional moment for us, certainly as actors who were in the piece, watching it for the first time and being reminded of everything we did over the past year-plus making the movie. And being out in Hall H in front of all these fans [for] the first time in years and understanding that this is the end of this trilogy. It’s all emotional.”

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 opens May 5, 2023.

—Video produced by Jen Kucsak and edited by Jimmie Rhee