With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 the film doesn’t end when the credits roll, director James Gunn teases

James Gunn is sending out his social-media missives in recent days as deftly as he deploys Star-Lord, Gamora and Groot.

Ahead of the release of his Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, the director said on Twitter that there are five – yes, five – “post-credits” scenes bundled with his new movie, a lot even for a Marvel film.

Amid an early wave of positive buzz (which Gunn is retweeting, as well), the director announced on Monday on Facebook that he is indeed on board to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

“In the end, my love for Rocket, Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord, Yondu, Mantis, Drax, and Nebula – and some of the other forthcoming heroes – goes deeper than you guys can possibly imagine,” Gunn wrote about weighing the third Guardians film, “and I feel they have more adventures to go on and things to learn about themselves and the wonderful and sometimes terrifying universe we all inhabit.”

Gunn noted how fraught completing a trilogy can be – and how Hollywood is littered with third films that didn’t live up to the first two (see: everything from The Godfather 3 to The Hangover 3). Yet the filmmaker also pointed to how his Guardians will begin interlocking with other realms within the Marvel universe, including the Avengers’ Infinity War.

“It will conclude the story of this iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and help catapult both old and new Marvel characters into the next ten years and beyond,” Gunn wrote. “I will be working side by side with Kevin Feige and the gang to help design where these stories go, and make sure the future of the Marvel Cosmic Universe is as special and authentic and magical as what we have created so far.”

We can expect Gunn to continue to drop tantalising nuggets of news on social media ahead of Guardians 2’s May 5 release in the US. The film opens in Hong Kong a week before that, on April 27.