Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 ‘On Hold’ According To Marvel

Marvel Really Jumped The Gunn On this One.

After the studio previously fired Guardians Of The Galaxy 1 and 2 director James Gunn for a series of tweets he made many years prior due to fears that it would reflect poorly on the company’s image, Disney has attempted to keep the project moving. However, later news from those involved with the project suggests that the search for a new and capable director did not go smoothly, as the production is being put on hold for an undetermined period of time.

Gunn’s firing did not go over well with fans of the series, with other Disney / Marvel employees, or with his fellow MCU members. Due to Gunn’s quick and honest apology to the Tweets.

To summarize the apology statement: Gunn stated that when his career began, he made a name for himself by making purposefully provocative statements about sensitive subjects. But that was several years ago – he hasn’t made Tweets or statements like those in some time because he has grown as a person and as a businessman. He goes on to thank everyone for helping him get to where he is and subsequently apologizes for anyone who might be offended by the tweets.

It’s also important to note that Gunn didn’t make this apology in an attempt to prevent being fired – He didn’t have time. Gunn was fired within 24 hours of this media event emerging.

The firing was likely a result of Disney / Marvel trying to uphold their kid-friendly messages/reputation. This is the situation Disney was trying to avoid: A kid searches the Guardians of the Galaxy movies on google because they are a fan of the characters, but the films are linked to the name James Gunn, who is linked with these tweets, so Google Images page 2 or 3 supplies an image of a Tweet joking about AIDS. Not the biggest of blowups, but Disney has poured loads of money into keeping their public image as spotless as possible, so it would make sense that they’d continue this effort.

However, many fans and co-workers believe they made the wrong move, and have contacted the company with repeated requests asking the director to be allowed to return to the chair. One of the more adamant requesters has been David Bautista, commonly known around the Marvel-Verse for his role as Drax The Destroyer. David posted this  Tweet in a show of support for the lost Gunn:

I will do what Im legally obligated to do but @Guardians without @JamesGunn is not what I signed up for. GOTG w/o @JamesGunn just isn’t GOTG. Its also pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis . That’s just how I feel https://t.co/Ym4FwruVDu

— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 5, 2018

Ouch.

and according to the Hollywood Reporter, GoTG3 is not just being delayed… It’s being delayed for a long time. So long that the company has given the clear for the small team who was just getting started on Pre-Production to get lost, and has told them it’s okay for them to start looking for new work. This also means they’re likely not using the script that Gunn had already written for Guardians 3: They’ll be starting over, completely, from scratch.

This is bad for Disney in a number of ways: Guardians 3 was meant to do big things for the MCU, and was supposed to be a film that would bridge the gap for Marvel’s more cosmic entities to come into the spotlight. And now that it’s gone, fans see that the biggest strength of Marvel’s interconnected universe is also its biggest weakness: If one film falls through, the Marvel plan suffers, as do 3 or 4 other films that would have released around that one.

That’s all we know for now on Guardians 3. If it does come out, it won’t be for a long time from now, an unfortunate circumstance for those who were looking forward to the fan-favorite intergalactic dysfunctional family to make a return to the big screen. We’ll update this article if any new information emerges concerning the state of the film.

Disney has yet to respond to any of this information for clarification or comment.