In recent months, James Gunn's Twitter feed has been very political in nature and so it didn't really surprise anyone when some old Tweets of his relating to controversial topics like rape and paedophilia came to light this week in what appeared to be an effort to discredit his often divisive opinions. While the filmmaker was quick to apologise for past remarks, it seems Disney was having none of it.
Earlier today, Gunn closed his account and his final Tweet was as follows: "Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor." Despite that, the studio has fired him.
That means he will no longer be taking the helm of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, a movie which was expected to begin shooting in the fall for a planned 2020 release date. In a statement confirming the news, Disney said: "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." Whether this means his script will not be used obviously remains to be seen.
Gunn was expected to conclude the Guardians trilogy with Vol. 3 and was being eyed to spearhead a new wave of cosmic movies for Marvel Studios. The franchise's future is now in doubt and it will be interesting seeing if Marvel decides to leave the team on the shelf or let someone else take a crack at them. We'll be sure to keep you updated with further details on the situation when we can.
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