12 Years After It Began, The MCU’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Trilogy Is More Important Than Ever

Published Aug 10, 2026, 9:30 AM EDT Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture. Sign in to your ScreenRant account 12 years after the first film in the series debuted, the MCU's most underrated trilogy looks more important than ever as of a result of its significance in the wider world of superhero movies. Over the years, the MCU timeline has featured an impressive range of trilogies, demonstrating the franchise's longevity and also its commitment to fleshing out the lives and on-screen stories of a broad assortment of Marvel characters. Every MCU trilogy has had its fans, of course, but some have gotten more attention in the big scheme of things than others. For example, Spider-Man's MCU trilogy effectively changed the entire universe for good thanks to Doctor Strange's spells in it causing everyone to forget Spider-Man is Peter Parker, the initial Captain America trilogy included what was effectively an Avengers movie via Captain America: Civil War, and Deadpool & Wolverine made the Deadpool trilogy retroactively part of the MCU multiverse. It's impossible to find an MCU trilogy without some wider significance when it comes to the superhero landscape on-screen today - but, somewhat paradoxically, one of the most often forgotten about trilogies when conversations about the MCU's series come up is also the most important for the wider world of superherodom in some very key ways. The Guardians of The Galaxy Trilogy Helped Kick Off The DC Universe The 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy movie and the subsequent trilogy it spawned have some clear significance for the superhero space for some readily apparent reasons, having expanded the MCU's galactic mythos, introduced a key superhero team, and delved into the Infinity Stones and Thanos in a way that would become increasingly important later on. However, perhaps the most important thing the trilogy did, somewhat ironically, isn't to do with the MCU at all. Instead, the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy's perhaps most crucial move from a long-term perspective was establishing director James Gunn's capacity for creating engaging superhero stories, and being able to handle a wide range of eccentric characters in a way that makes them feel realistic and relatable. While there's a chance Gunn would have become the co-CEO of DC Studios alongside Peter Safran even without the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, it's also easy to see how the films helped pave the way for this possibility, and gave James Gunn the experience that would go on to contribute to Superman's 2025 success as the first film in the DCU. The Guardians Of The Galaxy Trilogy's MCU Importance Is Still Clear Over A Decade After The First Film Credit: MovieStillsDB The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy going forth to help make an entire other superhero cinematic universe is of course something that can't really be overstated in terms of how significant it makes the series for the superhero genre more broadly speaking. That said, even if this hadn't happened, the films are still of crucial importance to the wider superhero sphere because of what they did for the MCU itself. The original Guardians of the Galaxy was key in terms of fleshing out Thanos at a point wherein we still knew extremely little about him, and detailing his story connection to the Infinity Stones, setting up some of the first signs of what would eventually become the plot of the MCU's biggest success stories in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy also provided a master class of sorts in terms of how to execute a superhero team trilogy, as the MCU movies manage to balance detailing the individual arcs of each member of the group alongside the wider arc of the team itself, which is one of the hardest things for films centered around superhero teams and factions to pull off, especially when it comes to doing so in a way that endears audiences to everyone involved. Movie(s) Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, ​The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far from Home, Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, Deadpool & Wolverine, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, Werewolf by Night, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, The Punisher: One Last Kill TV Show(s) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Inhumans, WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If...?, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Secret Invasion, Agatha All Along, Ironheart, Daredevil: Born Again, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Wonder Man, Echo, Marvel Zombies, Eyes of Wakanda First Film Iron Man First TV Show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Cast Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Edward Norton, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff, Josh Brolin, Karen Gillan, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Simu Liu, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Barry Keoghan, Gemma Chan, Ma Dong-seok, Brian Tyree Henry, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Lia McHugh, Jonathan Majors Director Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon, Shane Black, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, James Gunn, Peyton Reed, Taika Waititi, Ryan Coogler The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a long-running multimedia franchise drawn from the heroes, villains, and narratives of Marvel Comics. The MCU formally began with 2008's Iron Man, with other successes forming the basis for the contemporary path from comic page to screen, including over 30 films and 20 TV shows.