Ever since Disney canned Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn over some old tweets, it’s been a back-and-forth between fans, the studio, and his actors as to whether he would be back. It looks like the last hope has been put to bed, though, and Gunn won’t be coming home to helm the third Guardians movie after all.
Variety is reporting that a meeting between Gunn and Disney chairman Alan Horn has ended with Horn standing by Disney’s decision to drop Gunn.
“Gunn and his UTA reps pushed hard for him to be given a second chance,” Variety writes. “Horn decided to take a meeting but only as a courtesy to clear the air with Gunn. Though the meeting was described as civil and professional, sources say that Horn stood by his decision not to reinstate Gunn as director.”
The story adds that while Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was pushing to reinstate Gunn, he was out of town and unable to attend. Sources say he stands by Disney’s decision not to bring Gunn back.
This news comes despite explicit support from the Guardians cast, including threats from star Dave Bautista, who plays Drax, to leave if Gunn’s script isn’t used at the very least. That last part is pretty likely, sources are saying, so whoever ends up helming the movie (we were hoping Taika Waititi might be available), it’ll at least have a little bit of Gunn’s flavor, but you can expect any director to want to put their own spin on a project rather than making someone else’s movie, so it’ll likely be a different project. With all this up in the air, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the movie’s 2020 release date slip back a year or so. In the meantime, we’re looking forward to Captain Marvel, Avengers 4, and Spider-Man: Far from Home all releasing from Marvel Studios in 2019.
