Guardians of the Galaxy's Tyler Bates Not Returning to Score Vol. 3

10/12/2021 06:35 pm EDT

While virtually the entire cast — and James Gunn himself — will be returning for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, one familiar face won't be making a return. Tyler Bates, the composer behind the first two Guardians flicks and a frequent Gunn collaborator, won't be back to score the final entry in the original Guardians trilogy.

Instead, as Gunn announced himself Tuesday, scoring duties will now fall to composer John Murphy, whom Gunn worked with on The Suicide Squad.

"I had to get off of a Zoom right before this Zoom because I was talking to all of my heads of department," Gunn said in a recent interview with CinemaBlend. "We were going through the finale of the film from shot to shot, to shot, to shot and explaining exactly how each shot was going to be done. Now, this stuff we're going to shoot in May. So this is about just planning. After I get off of this, I'm going to have to go listen to some music that John Murphy wrote that we're going to be playing during the movie. … I guess I'm spoiling the fact that John Murphy is doing the score for Guardians. So you guys got a scoop."

Prior to working together on the Warner Brothers anti-hero hit, Murphy worked on other genre hits like Kick-Ass and 28 Weeks Later.

Gunn went on to talk about Murphy's filmmaking progress, revealing the composer wrote much of the Squad score as the film was shooting, allowing the cast on set to film sequences while using the score itself.

"It was things like King Shark, when he's in the aquarium, we knew we needed something beautiful and haunting there," the filmmaker added. "When Team One comes out in front of the American flag, we knew we needed something there. When Team Two is going back to save the day from Starro, we knew we needed something there. … When we have Ratcatcher 2 talking about her father, that conversation with her and Bloodsport on the bus, we had something there that I'm listening to the whole time. While Daniela Melchior is giving her speech, I've got the music in my ears, so that it is almost like she's performing like a William Shatner-esque poetry-to-music (routine). All of that stuff is planned out."

The first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies are now streaming on Disney+ while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is due to hit theaters May 5, 2023. I Am Groot and the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special have yet to receive release dates.

What members of the Guardians would you like to see spin-off shows of? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

Cover photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage

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