"Guardians of the Galaxy 2" might have been given the green light, but it would appear that there will be some massive changes in the plot. Director James Gunn has already confirmed that, although majority of the cast members will be returning to reprise their roles, the main antagonist, Ronan, played by Lee Pace, will be a no-show in the sequel.
BreatheCast says that, according to Christian Today, Gunn held a question-and-answer portion on his official Facebook page. One of the fans asked if Pace's character will be the villain in the sequel, and Gunn straight-out dashed their hopes of Ronan's return.
It would appear that Gunn opted to take a path different from the Marvel franchise's comic book angle. "It's different than what's in the comic books," Gunn said during an episode of "Alison Rosen is Your New Best Friend," according to Uproxx.
"Peter Quill's father is somebody different in the comics. So then, when the movie came out, we got green-lit on the sequel right away."
"I went in and I sat down with those guys and I'm, like, 'Okay. Here's what I think the sequel should be,'" added Gunn. "And they were, like, "Oh. Whoa. That's risky. But okay.' Now, I'm going to turn over the story in a few short weeks, and we'll find out how well it works."
Screen Rant says that Gunn has decided to work away from the comic book and go after an "original story" that he came up with while he was shooting "Guardians of the Galaxy."
He explained, "We'll get to know some of the characters a little bit more and then we're going to meet a couple of new characters who will be very important to 'Guardians' movies. And probably important to the Marvel universe as a whole."
According to Polygon, Gunn said last year that he wanted to explore Kraglin, Yondu, Ravagers, and even Nebula and the Collector. It remains unclear if he will truly push through with these angles, since the only thing he has confirmed will be the focus on Quill's father.
Marvel Studios had already announced in a separate Polygon report that the sequel, which remains without a title to date, will be hitting theaters by May 5 of 2017. Plus, on that same month, the studio also announced in another Polygon report that an animated series of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" was also in development.