Continuing on from this post:
It’s the third Captain America film.
No, it’s not. It is basically The Avengers 2.5: The Apology for Age of Ultron. It wouldn’t be that much of a problem, if the movie would feature just Cap as the main character, hence the title CAPTAIN AMERICA.
The whole heart of the film is a continuation of what came before in Winter Soldier and First Avenger. The film is about Captain America refusing to give up on his best friend or to compromise his morals.
Even you stick just the Cap movies, with Civil War the viewers face serious problems to follow/understand what’s going on.
The audience doesn’t live in a vacuum, if they’ve made it through three Captain America films then they’re well aware of the Avengers and Iron Man even if they haven’t seen those films.
If Gunn is trying to avoid the repercussions of his heroes mingling with the greater MCU then why didn’t he set Vol. 3 before Infinity War?
My guess is, Gunn sets GOTG3 eight years after Infinity War, because the incidents of that movie will be probably be dealt with - mentally & personally for the GOTG ensemble. Gunn won’t have to make to make a big deal out of it. Maybe the GOTG characters will mention the Infinity War in one or two scences. The most important thing: with the eight year time gap, Infinity War is out of the way and Gunn can focus on the third story he wants to tell for the GOTG ensemble. And mark my words: none of the Avengers guys will have a supporting role or impact in that movie.
I’ve been doing some serious digging and I have yet to find any evidence to support this idea that Vol. 3 is set 8 years after Infinity War that you keep bringing up. What is currently known is that Vol. 2 is set two months after the first film in 2014 and that Infinity War takes place four years after Vol. 2. Which means that Infinity War takes place in 2018, the same year of its release. All that’s known about Vol. 3 is that it takes place after the Infinity War.
Do you have a source for this eight year thing?
Putting that aside for the moment. The Guardians are and always have been an integral part of what’s happening in the MCU. They’re tied to Thanos and Thanos is the big bad that everything has been leading to. The first Guardians was the first time Thanos saw any significant amount of screen time. It also is the film that explains what the infinity stones are, the very McGuffins that have been driving the entire MCU plot forward in the background. Both Gamora and Nebula are daughters of Thanos and are undoubtedly going to play a very significant role during the Infinity War.