Disney and Marvel Studios fans have been having a stellar month. The new film, Captain Marvel, has been well received, sitting at $760 million in current worldwide box office gross for only the first two weekends. The Disney acquisition of Fox, including missing Marvel properties such as the X-Men and Fantastic Four, is slated to complete on March 20th.
And near the end of last week, Deadline revealed the House of Mouse has brought James Gunn back to helm Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Gunn directed the first two Guardians movies, writing the first with Nicole Perlman, and the second himself. The films have proven to be one of Marvel Studios most popular franchises.
There was a lot of outrage when Gunn was initially removed from the films, leading fans to celebrate the recent news.
With Gunn being such a popular director, and fans wanting him onboard, you may be wondering how he was removed in the first place.
Last summer, a campaign led by members of the alt-right stirred up their own outrage over a series of old tweets made by Gunn due to his personal politics. The tweets themselves were horrible, making light of such dark topics as pedophilia and rape.
Alan Horn, the Walt Disney chairman, wrote in a statement condemning Gunn's old tweets, saying,
"The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him."
However, Gunn had apologized for these tweets in the past, has constantly tried to prove he's moved on from the provocateur he pretended to be, and is moving forward.
The alt-right have tried to compare Gunn's situation the last several months to ones experienced by Kevin Hart, Roseanne, and most recently, Tucker Carlson. The big difference is those names didn't apologize as thoroughly and completely as Gunn has, and they've not shown their willingness to change from when they made their comments.
While James Gunn's jokes were 'indefensible', this move highlights a possible redemption for celebs who've been canceled.
It's just going to be complicated.
Complicating the matters further, during a time when Gunn was still talking with Disney about coming back, he was hired to write and direct Suicide Squad 2Suicide Squad 2 by rival studio Warner Bros.
The first film was often compared to Gunn's interpretation of Guardians of the Galaxy due to the use of bright neon colors, a 70s/80s pop rock laden soundtrack, and that both teams were made of criminals looking to save the day.
Disney has confirmed that they will wait for Gunn to be available after Suicide Squad 2, offering a tremendous amount of leniency. The Suicide Squad sequel is set for release on Aug 6th, 2021.
This becomes less of a surprise when the fact Disney never met with another director comes to light. As part of Deadline's reporting, they confirmed that Gunn was officially brought back on a few months ago after many internal negotiations with the company.
Which means Gunn is in the clear to helm both franchises.
While internet trolls will grumble, and comic book fans will cheer, the real winners here are the cast and crew who stood by Gunn. Dave Bautista, who plays Drax in the Guardians films, was very vocal in his support of the director.
Bautista along with Zoey Saldana, Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper penned a letter of support for Gunn after his dismissal.
While we're happy to see Gunn complete his trilogy of Marvel films, maybe Warner Bros. can get him to finish another?
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