'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' news, spoilers: Director's initial treatment included another Guardian; Guardians to appear in 'Infinity War'

In "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," the highly anticipated sequel to 2014's box office hit "Guardians of the Galaxy," three new Guardians will be added to the original five.

But in an initial treatment for the upcoming film, there was another character joining the Guardians apart from Yondu (Michael Rooker), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and the all-new character, Mantis (Pom Klementieff).

Responding to a fan question in a recent Facebook Q&A, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" director James Gunn wrote, "I loved the character and loved including him/her, and thought my take was fun."

"But I started to feel that there were two [too] many characters in the story and for all of the characters to get their due, I needed to remove one," he explained. Thus, the unnamed character was scrapped while Mantis stayed on to appear in the film.

In the same Q&A, Gunn revealed that he had the option to include at least one of the Avengers in the upcoming film, but that he chose not to.

The "Vol. 2" director also reacted to the rumors of the Marvel TV characters — Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist — appearing in 2018's "Avengers: Infinity War."

"I don't think we're going to see much interactions between the Marvel TV universe and the MCU in the near future," he wrote.

Gunn's comment is the most straightforward response to the rumor, which has been making the rounds since "Infinity War" was announced. Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of that film, have not given a definitive statement on the topic and neither has Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.

But while the Marvel TV superheroes may not be in "Infinity War," it now seems that the Guardians will. In a recent statement made on Facebook Live, "Guardians of the Galaxy" star Vin Diesel, who voices Groot, said, "...the Guardians will be included in 'Avengers: Infinity War' and that's incredibly exciting."

"Incredibly exciting," he stressed, and added, "Incredibly exciting and something that if you were a part of our page you knew before everybody."

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" is currently in post-production and is slated for a May 5, 2017 release.