Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3: Everything We Know
2. It Will Plant The Seeds For Marvel's Cosmic Future
Guardians 2 introduced Sylvester Stallone as Stakar Ogord, a Ravager who was revealed to be part of a ragtag group of alien creatures during one of the movie's post-credits scenes.
This group included Aleta Ogord, Mainframe, Martinex, Charlie-27 and Krugarr, and because we were introduced to them here, it seemed like Gunn was setting them up for future appearances in Marvel's cosmic-set movies.
So when Gunn says that Guardians 3 will "end the trilogy", that doesn't mean we won't get any other Guardians movies. Chances are, when Star-Lord, Gamora and the rest of the current gang are phased out, we'll get to see other Guardians squads go on other space-centric adventures, whether in a fourth Guardians movie, or another cosmic entry in the MCU.
While chatting to the Toronto Sun in 2017, Gunn touched on this idea, stating that we haven't seen the last of Stakar's team...
“My plan is to see more of him... I’m not sure about him appearing in Vol. 3, we’ll have to see about that, but it’s our plan to see more of Stallone. Kevin [Feige] and I are working on what is going to become of the Marvel Cosmic Universe and where it’s going to go. We plan to see the rest of them [Stakar's team] in the future.”
...and that Guardians 3 will "plant the seeds" for other cosmic characters:
"I think that there could be a Guardians Vol. 4, but it would not be the same. It would not be the same group… basically the story of this group ends with Vol. 3. I will be helping to plant the seeds that will lead to the next decade. I’m helping to decide what projects we’ll be pursuing outside of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3… and what the next cosmic characters we will focus on.”
So however Guardians 3 ends, expect it to leave the MCU's cosmic future looking bright rather than bleak.