Karen Gillan praises James Gunn's 'wonderful' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 script (exclusive)

Karen Gillan has read James Gunn’s “wonderful” script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and said it “wouldn’t have felt right” to complete the trilogy without him.

Gunn, who directed the first two Guardians movies, was reinstated to the Marvel fold earlier this year after previously being fired by Disney when controversial tweets from his past resurfaced.

Gillan, who plays Nebula, was among the cast members who signed an open letter calling for Gunn to get his job back.

Read more: Marvel directors back Gunn return

In an interview to promote her directorial debut The Party’s Just Beginning, the 32-year-old told Yahoo Movies UK she is excited to get started on the threequel.

“I can say that I’ve read it and it’s amazing,” she said.

“We’re all really excited that James is back to complete the trilogy because it wouldn’t have felt right without him. It’s a wonderful, wonderful script.”

One script she wasn’t allowed to read in advance however, was Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely’s for Avengers: Endgame, despite having a pivotal role as Thanos’ daughter.

“I didn’t get the whole script,” she tells us, “but I got a good chunk of it and so I could easily work out what was happening.”

Nebula was crucial in the time travel narrative of the fourth Avengers films, with villain Thanos exploiting her cybernetic parts to uncover the good guys’ plan.

The evil titan then sent Nebula’s past self — loyal to Thanos — back to the present day in place of the real one.

Read more: Marvel tease ‘Infinity Saga’ box set

Gillan said she was “over the moon” when she found out Nebula was set to play a beefed-up role in Endgame, which has since become the highest-grossing movie of all time.

She said: “When I signed on to Nebula, it was eight days of filming and she was supposed to die in the first Guardians film.

“So to go on and be able to evolve the character and then have her be this pivotal role in Endgame was amazing. I didn’t see it coming at all.”

The Party’s Just Beginning sees Gillan return to her hometown of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands, playing a young woman struggling to deal with the suicide of her best friend.

Gillan said she hopes the film, which she wrote as well as directed, can “start a conversation” about mental health, with suicide rates in the Highlands particularly high.

“It’s something we need to be talking about,” she said. “The issue itself is that I think a lot of men aren’t able to talk about it.”

Read more: First reactions to Jumanji sequel are positive

She added: “I think we need to talk about that, try to break [the stigma] down and create that safe environment where men really can express vulnerability.”

The Party’s Just Beginning is out in UK cinemas from 1 December, and on Digital 11 December, and Gillan will also be seen in adventure sequel Jumanji: The Next Level on 11 December.