Guardians of the Galaxy is an American animated television series, based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name. It is produced by Marvel Television and Marvel Animation. The series airs on Disney XD and premiered on September 26, 2015 as a part of the Marvel Universe block. While it serves as a spiritual continuation of the first film's plot, film director James Gunn has stated that it is not a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe nor connected to the feature film or its sequel.
A third season was announced at the D23 Expo, which is based on the Disney Parks attraction of the same name. In this season, the Guardians of the Galaxy go on the run when they are framed by Collector who has Howard the Duck set them up for the theft of a Kree item after they broke some items in their last encounter at his special prison which leads to them evading the Kree Accuser Phyla-Vell. After Howard the Duck admitted being threatened by Collector into double-crossing the Guardians of the Galaxy as well as Collector's ship shrinking Hala by converting the black hole generator into a molecular compression engine, Phyla-Vell works with the Guardians of the Galaxy to save Hala and defeat Collector who gets away after setting his ship to self-destruct. After traversing through the Black Vortex, the Guardians of the Galaxy discover that the Asgardians' old enemies the Darkhawks have been replacing Nova Prime and members of the Galactic Council. This season included Marvel characters Spider-Man, Max Modell, Venom, and Carnage in a crossover with the television series Spider-Man, with Stan Lee having a voice role to go with his cameo.