As Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 inches closer to its premiere, fans of this corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are gearing up to witness what will certainly be a teary goodbye—both to the Guardians as we know them and to director and screenwriter James Gunn, who has moved on to take the reins of the DC Universe. During a press tour to promote the new entry of the MCU, Gunn and Chris Pratt sat down with Collider to talk about the Guardians’ swan song.

During the interview, Pratt and Gunn conjured up some scenarios with our own Perri Nemiroff as they wondered how different the story might have been if the original Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) had survived and stuck with the Guardians. After getting killed by her father in Avengers: Infinity War, the warrior ended up replaced with a Gamora from a different timeline—one that has no interest at all in Peter Quill. Pratt broke down how the loss of the original Gamora impacts how Peter now looks at himself:

“I think probably what happened in ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’ with Gamora dying. That’s gotta have the biggest impact on Vol. 3, certainly. He had found who he was in her eyes and his love for her, and so when he looks in those eyes and doesn’t see that anymore, it’s pretty heartbreaking and I think that resonates through the course of the whole volume.”

Image via Marvel

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Would Be Completely Different With Original Gamora
In the same interview, Pratt revealed that it’s highly likely that had the original Gamora not been killed, the next natural step for them in Vol. 3 would be to start a family. However, Pratt also underscored that Quill has the tendency to screw things up, so at some point, he probably would have “blown it.” That prompted director James Gunn to cut in and say that the original Gamora would probably get fed up with Peter Quill’s behavior and end up with Adam Warlock (played by Will Poulter), as she does in the comic books.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set to both tell the origin story of one of its main characters and send off the main team with style and emotion. The cast also features Dave Bautista as Drax, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Pom Klementieff as Mantis, Vin Diesel as Groot, Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon, Maria Bakalova as Cosmo the Spacedog, Asim Choudhry as Teefs the Walrus, Linda Cardellini as Lylla the Otter, Sylvester Stallone as Stakar Ogord and Elizabeth Debicki as Ayesha.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 premieres in theaters this Friday, May 5. You can watch the trailer below: