Chris Pratt Confirms Star-Lord Will Return in the MCU

Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord hasn’t appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2023, when James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy definitively concluded. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 gave Star-Lord (aka Peter Quill) a hard reset. The intergalactic hero returned to Earth and found new purpose in enjoying Terran cereal and contemplating an amateur career in landscaping.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 promised that “The legendary Star-Lord will return.” Years later, Pratt says it will happen. He also says “hard action” has been taken to bring back at least one of the Guardians.

The future of Guardians of the Galaxy in the MCU

Pratt spoke with The Playlist‘s Bingeworthy podcast and expanded on comments he made earlier this year about Star-Lord’s promised return. “I have a great relationship with Kevin [Feige] and Lou [D’Esposito],” Pratt said, “and there have been both ongoing conversations about how we make good on that promise and also hard action taken to make sure that we make good on that promise. So yeah, you’ll see Star-Lord again, which is very exciting, but I’m not at liberty to say when that’s going to be, but he’s not going anywhere.”

On a previous podcast, Pratt said he has an idea of how Marvel Studios will use him in a future project. He wasn’t at liberty to say whether he would return in either of the next two Avengers movies, Doomsday and Secret Wars. Happy Sad Confused host Josh Horowitz asked whether Pratt would potentially return to lead a new Guardians team without Gunn at the helm. Pratt was non-committal.

“Everything is all liquid, right?” he said at the time. “They kind of take things a step at a time at Marvel. I’m happy to do anything they want me to do — and will. Also, I personally have a really strong vision of what I would want [Star-Lord] to do, and I think it’s [fucking] great. I’m down to contribute any way I can to them setting up the next 10 years of storytelling and I have a pretty strong idea of how I can contribute to that.”

Pratt first played Star-Lord in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. He reprised the role in two direct sequels and in the Disney Plus special The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. He also guest-starred in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and made a cameo in Thor: Love and Thunder.

Star-Lord is currently back on Earth, but the multiversal shenanigans promised in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars mean pretty much anything can happen. Much of the Doomsday cast has been officially revealed, but directors Joe and Anthony Russo have teased surprise reveals still to come.

Pratt’s character could also reasonably turn up in the recently announced Nova movie, which will reportedly feature the Richard Rider version of the character. Star-Lord got quite friendly with the Nova Corps in the Guardians films. A buddy space-cop movie with Pratt, John C. Reilly’s Rhomann Dey and Richard Rider sounds like a potentially great time.

Pratt’s latest project, season 2 of the Prime Video series The Terminal List, debuted earlier this week.

Related: Every tease Marvel still needs to pay off, in theory

Source: Polygon