James Gunn is one of the best at interacting with fans on social media and gets a real joy out of seeing the excitement people have for the projects he is working on. He has recently finished the first draft for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and decided to go to Periscope to answer questions about the sequel and his future involvement with Marvel.

One of the questions most frequently asked by fans was what the subtitle for the sequel would be, something which Gunn clearly had no intention on divulging just yet. (Some speculate it could have 6 characters in it; Vol. 2 perhaps?).

While he couldn’t comment on the title, as the film isn’t set to start filming until February, he did offer up some other interesting information during last’s night Periscope session. He briefly touched on how long he will stay involved with Marvel, what other projects he’d be interested in working on, how big – or small! – of a cast the film will have, as well as confirming a cast and crew member.

Fans have been eagerly awaiting to see what other properties Gunn could do with Marvel and there were once even rumors that he could direct Avengers: Infinity War. He’s also previously expressed interested in directing a Thunderbolts movie prior to getting involved with Guardians of the Galaxy. During the Periscope Q&A, Gunn said that he has no interest in directing any film outside of the cosmic universe.

He also stated that his desire to direct a third Guardians movie, should the sequel do well, will depend on how he feels after making the second. Besides doing the main installments, Gunn said that he would only be interested in being involved with a spinoff movie involving any of the current Guardians.

One thing fans have been eagerly awaiting is news of what new characters will appear alongside and against the Guardians. Gunn has previously stated he will add a few new characters to the cast and we even speculated that Starfox and Moondragon would be logical choices.

During the Q&A, however, Gunn said that the cast in the sequel will actually be smaller than the original. He once again confirmed that the likes of Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer), Vin Diesel (Groot), Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon), and Michael Rooker (Yondu) will all be returning. We also know that Karen Gillan (Nebula) will reprise her role. Gunn said that the reason for the smaller cast is to focus on the main characters and get to know more about their backgrounds. This could mean that supporting characters like Glenn Close (Nova Prime), John C. Reilly (Corpsman Dey), and Benicio Del Toro (The Collector) may not return for the sequel.

He also mentioned that there was a bigger character he wanted to involve, but that it made the film feel too cluttered so he had to take the character out. (He did no disclose which character this was, unfortunately.) Additionally, there was an interesting moment when someone asked him about Tilda Swinton and he said that he was at one point writing a role for her until something got in the way. Did he accidentally confirm Swinton will play The Ancient One in Doctor Strange? If you check out the replay of the video on Periscope, his facial expressions and gestures pretty much tell the story.

A few smaller pieces of information revealed in the Q&A was Gunn stating that his brother Sean Gunn will indeed reprise his role as Kraglin, one of Yondu’s Ravagers. He also re-confirmed that Tyler Bates would return to score the sequel.

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is set to hit theaters on May 5th, 2017.

Source: James Gunn on Periscope.