Director James Gunn will remain fired from the upcoming Guardians Of The Galaxy, Vol 3.
So is the end result of a meeting between the director and Disney studio chief Alan Horne held earlier this week, according to Variety. Although the trade reports that the meeting was “civil and professional,” it did not yield the result that fans of the Marvel Studios franchise were hoping for – the reinstatement of Gunn as director.
Gunn was fired from his directorial position last month after a far-right “journalist” resurrected some offensive tweets Gunn made a decade ago, which he had previously apologized for, disavowed and deleted from the social media platform. But that didn’t stop Horne from making a snap decision to fire Gunn summarily. Online reaction among both fans and genre journalists was critical of Horne’s actions, pointing out that Gunn is a different, better person and that one of the themes of the previous two Guardians Of The Galaxy films has been that anyone has the capacity to grow, mature and become a better person. In addition to the vocal support Gunn received from numerous colleagues and friends, the Guardians ensemble cast released an open letter of support for the director.
The possibility that Disney could reverse their decision first gained credibility late last week when a report stated that Marvel was engaging in some back channel conversations with Horne. But even then, the report called those talks a “long shot” for getting Gunn back in the director’s chair for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3.
Marvel is now in the position where it will have to find itself a director for the third movie. Gunn had been in preproduction on Guardians 3 at the time of his firing with shooting scheduled for later this fall. Since they are keeping Gunn’s screenplay for the film, Marvel will need to hire someone and bring them up to speed rather quickly if they still want to hit that start date.
