Movie news: End of the road for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ ‘Fast & Furious’?

This is the end?

At this week’s premiere of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” James Gunn said he’s directing a third installment, but it will be the “last of this iteration.” “It’s going to do it in a big way, and we’re going to come to an epic conclusion of who the Guardians are and why they were brought together, and I can’t wait to tell that story to the people,” Gunn told Variety. Earlier on Facebook, Gunn (of St. Louis, by the way) said No. 3 would “help catapult both old and new Marvel characters into the next ten years and beyond.” In other words, spinoffs!

Meanwhile, Gunn tweeted that No. 2, set to open May 5, will have, count ’em, five post-credit scenes.

End of the road?

In other franchise-ending news: “The Fate of the Furious” opened with a record $532 million at the global box office, bringing the eight-movie franchise to $4.5 billion and counting. So you’d think this Vin Diesel-powered vehicle would keep on running. But now it looks like No. 10 will be the last, and producer Neil Moritz knows what that looks like: “We kind of have the ending point of the franchise, but we don’t know the in-betweens yet,” he told Collider. The Playlist points out that Diesel has said the franchise would end with a final trilogy, so “The Fate of the Furious,” expected to stay at No. 1 again at the box office this weekend, is really the beginning of the end.

Movie briefs

▪ Will Smith is in early talks to play Genie in Guy Ritchie’s live-action “Aladdin,” says Deadline.com. Disney is also looking for a Middle Eastern actor and actress for the title character and Princess Jasmine.

▪ Director Joss Whedon wants an unknown actress to star in his “Batgirl,” he told Variety on the “Guardians 2” red carpet.

▪ Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who co-directed the indie gambling drama “Mississippi Grind, will direct “Captain Marvel,” starring Brie Larson, says Variety. It’s due in March 2019.

This story was originally published April 20, 2017 at 1:11 PM with the headline "Movie news: End of the road for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ ‘Fast & Furious’?."