According to a new report at Deadline, James Gunn, is being brought back on board to direct Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol. 3. The news comes less than a year after Gunn was fired by Disney when right-wing trolls unearthed old, offensive Tweets from Gunn’s past twitter activity late last summer.
Mike Fleming Jr. reports the following: “After the firing, Walt Disney Studios president Alan Horn met with Gunn on multiple occasions to discuss the situation. Persuaded by Gunn’s public apology and his handling of the situation after, Horn decided to reverse course and reinstate Gunn.”
Gunn’s Hall H appearance for last year’s Comic Con for the upcoming May 24 release on David Yarovesky’s Brightburn (on which Gunn serves as producer), was pulled upon the news of the tweets. His subsequent firing proved even more divisive with supporters, bloggers and fans alike, and even the cast – most notably Dave Bautista – arguing the affirmative for Gunn’s stay.
That didn’t stop the studio from leaving things in the air before finally announcing they would use Gunn’s script. They still wanted a director, but now it seems nothing stuck; Thor: Ragnarok helmer Taika Watiti was rumored to have sat with Marvel over the possibility of directing the film at one point, only to flatly deny those rumors during a panel at this year’s TCA Conference.
“I didn’t really. For me, those are James (Gunn)’s films.” he said. “Going into something like that with his stamp all over his films, would be like going into someone’s house and saying ‘Hey, I’m your new dad, and this is how we make peanut butter sandwiches now. It feels kind of awkward.”
With the line seemingly drawn, Gunn moved on late last year having circled Warner Bros. upcoming sequel, The Suicide Squad, between now and last October. That film, currently circling Idris Elba for the role of Deadshot, is dated for August 6, 2021, after which Disney is reportedly letting Gunn resume his work on the Marvel GOTG threequel, and from his script no less.
The former Troma employee went on to board Marvel Studios’ world-building space operatic as the first of two current films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Both have contributed up to $1.6 billion dollars globally at the box office.