James Gunn says 'Guardians of the Galaxy 3' won't be the movie people "expect".

The 55-year-old filmmaker has opened up on the next instalment in the hugely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, and heaped praise on actor Chukwudi Iwuji for his performance.

Asked for an update on the film, he told Collider: "It's going great. Chukwudi, who plays Murn in 'Peacemaker', is one of the main characters in the movie and people are freaking out over how good this guy is. Literally freaking out.

"I think that I'm really happy. I gave a bunch of scenes to Marvel right before Christmas break. Kevin [Feige] went... They were all really, really, really stoked.

"But also, it's not going to be the movie people... It's different than what people are going to expect. It's a hard road, but I'm really happy with it so far."

Gunn also provided an update on the upcoming 'Guardians Holiday Special', which is due to launch on Disney+ in December this year.

However, he admitted filming is actually et to get underway with plans changing due to the pandemic.

He explained: "It's still upcoming in the shoot. We were supposed to shoot one day in LA, and there's too much Omicron around, so we couldn't do it.

"We're going to have to fit it in. I haven't started yet. I'm excited to. It's fun."

He joked he's actually "almost jealous" of the special because he feels it overshadows his other work.

He said: "The holiday special is... I'm almost jealous of it, even though I wrote it because people freak out so much on how much they love the script for the holiday special that I'm almost like, 'Well, wait. I've got this movie here I've been working on for two years. You love the holiday special that I literally wrote in a very short amount of time.'

"But, it is really funny and really good."