Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn has teased that the sequel will be “more emotional” – and paradoxically both “bigger” and “smaller”.

Speaking to Collider at the Saturn Awards, James said: “It’s both a bigger movie and a smaller movie, because we focus more intensely on some of the characters.

“We get to learn a lot about fathers in the second movie, and I think that we focus a lot on that.”

James Gunn and Chris Pratt
James Gunn and Chris Pratt (John Shearer/Invision)

The second instalment of the Marvel box office hit will also feature the contents of Awesome Mix Vol. 2, the cassette unwrapped by Star-Lord – played by Chris Pratt – at the end of the first film.

Awesome Mix Vol. 1, which was released as the soundtrack, was the US’s second best-selling soundtrack album of 2014 – second only to Frozen.

James finished the first draft of the script earlier this month, but the title remains a secret.

Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 will be released in May 2017.