'Guardians of the Galaxy' anniversary honored by Chris Pratt and James Gunn

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy hit theaters a year ago on Saturday, Aug. 1, and in commemoration of the anniversary, the film’s star(-Lord), Chris Pratt, and director, James Gunn, shared some special messages for fans.

Gunn, who both directed and co-wrote the script, published a letter on his Facebook page.

“What meant more to me is that ‘We are Groot’ became a rallying cry for unity among friends and families,” he wrote. “What meant more to me is that you laughed at the dumb stuff I thought you’d miss, like ‘Cap’n’s gotta teach stuff’ and ‘I was thinking of something else.’ What meant more to me is that in our tenth week we were out-performing any comic book film in recent history — not because of the money, but because people were going back to see the film a second, third, fourth, fifth time, or more, because they loved it. What mattered to me is that after a lifetime of telling stories and half a lifetime making movies, I felt like you and I, filmmaker and audience, were at the same place at the same time.”

Continuing in his own personal tradition of honoring the fans, Gun also tweeted a fun piece of art, featuring an itty bitty Star-Lord and Rocket.

Pratt, who played our mischievous intergalactic hero, similarly celebrated the day by tweeting his praise for the film and his excitement heading back to this world.

Speaking of heading back, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is currently slated for May 5, 2017. Pratt will be rejoined by Zoe Saldana as Gamora, Dave Bautista as Drax, Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, and Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket. Gunn teased at the Saturn Awards that the sequel will be “a more emotional movie” and that we’ll “get to learn a lot more about fathers.” He also said that we’ll be learning more about Rocket’s backstory and teased new Guardians to be inducted into the fold.

•James Gunn confirms the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel title

•James Gunn says Guardians of the Galaxy 2 will be ‘a more emotional movie’

•James Gunn teases Guardians of the Galaxy 2 script (but not the title)