James Gunn defends Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 runtime

James Gunn has defended the runtime of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

While replying to a fan on Twitter, the Guardians of the Galaxy director confirmed the franchise's third standalone outing will have a runtime of around two hours and 29 minutes.

"It's around that long, although that's not yet exact," Gunn responded to the fan's estimate on Sunday. "And, I promise, not a second is wasted. There's no fat."

He continued, "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)."

In a follow-up tweet, the director replied to another fan encouraging him not to apologise "for making a long movie".

Gunn wrote, "I don't feel like I'm apologising. I'm excited about the movie and the runtime."

Explaining why the runtime hadn't yet been set in stone, he tweeted, "It's gonna be around that. It's just the length of end credits that are being estimated in this running time."

Fans noticed Gunn's use of "trilogy plus" in his original tweet, and speculated that more Guardians of the Galaxy movies were on the way.

However, he clarified, "The 'trilogy plus' is the trilogy plus the Holiday Special, (Infinity War) and Endgame."

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which will be released in May, will mark Gunn's final Marvel movie as he is now working exclusively for DC Films. He and Peter Safran became the co-chairmen and co-CEOs of the studio in November.