Marvel 'Trying to Persuade' Disney to Rehire James Gunn for Guardians of the Galaxy 3: Report

Marvel is “trying to persuade” its parent Disney to rehire James Gunn as director for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, according to a new report. Gunn was fired by Disney a few weeks back in July for a series of offensive tweets posted a decade to six years ago, which included jokes about paedophilia, rape, and molestation.

Sources close to Deadline claim that “back channel conversations are taking place between Marvel Studios and Disney”, with the former bent on asking the latter “to explore a compromise” that would let allow the 52-year-old writer-director, best known for Guardians of the Galaxy and its 2017 sequel, to return for the third chapter, which he has already scripted.

Deadline notes it’s a “long shot” but “not surprising” that Marvel president Kevin Feige would try such a move, given Gunn was fired for his “poor choice of words” during an era he was known for shock humour. Gunn has apologised for his jokes multiple times over the years, and issued another statement immediately in the wake of his firing back in July.

He also has the support of his entire cast, including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff and brother Sean Gunn, who penned an open letter at the end of July in support of their Guardians colleague.

Moreover, Disney needs to move quickly on finding a replacement director, since the film has to begin production early next year to hit its mid-2020 release date. The Guardians films have been two of the most successful films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, bringing in over $1.6 billion in global ticket sales.