Not a second has been wasted in the two-and-a-half-hour runtime of the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie, filmmaker James Gunn said in response to a fan query on Twitter on Sunday, claiming that the “long” runtime was necessary to experience the full arc for every major Guardians character.

“It’s around that long, although that’s not yet exact. And, I promise, not a second is wasted. There’s no fat. It was necessary to experience the full arc for every major Guardians character, not only for this film, but for the trilogy (or, I should say, trilogy plus),” he wrote.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is likely to be the DC co-CEO’s last film for Marvel Studios. In a follow-up tweet, the director-turned-executive said that he was “excited about the movie and the runtime”.

When a fan asked why the runtime was not official yet, Gunn added, “It’s gonna be around that. It’s just the length of end credits that are being estimated in this running time.”

After Gunn’s initial tweet, many fans noticed that he ended his reply by saying “trilogy plus” which got many wondering if the Guardians could potentially have a fourth film. However, the director clarified that he was not hinting at more films but at what was already out there.

“The ‘trilogy plus’ is the trilogy plus the Holiday Special, Infinity War and Endgame,” he wrote in response to a tweet.

Starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan and Pom Klementieff, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will arrive in theatres on May 5.

James Gunn recently confirmed that he will write and direct the upcoming Superman film Superman: Legacy. This will be the first big-screen feature of DC under the co-CEOs Gunn and Peter Safran. It is slated for release on July 11, 2025.

Superman: Legacy is one of the projects Gunn and Safran teased earlier as part of what they have dubbed DC’s Chapter 1: God and Monsters. The film is billed as an overarching story told via different TV shows, films and video games.