Disney may re-hire fired director James Gunn? UPDATE: Em, no… they won’t

August 1st, 2018 by Marc Comments

If you have been living under a rock for the last two weeks you may not have heard about the James Gunn Twitter debacle…

So here’s the deal, before Gunn was the man behind Guardians of the Galaxy at Disney, he made some horror movies for companies like Troma and his personality was, let’s say, risky. As was his tweets. He, about two years ago, made some very distastefully tweets and, despite apologising for them since, they were unearthed a fortnight ago and Disney fired him from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 which he was already writing and prepping for filming (follow it here and here).

However, this was not the end of the affair as fans across the world came together to make their voices heard and they, mostly it seems, want him back. Then the cast of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies put out a letter in defence of Gunn that they all signed (here) and suddenly there was talk of Gunn being rehired… there was talk of Guardians Vol 3 being cancelled… there was a lot of talk.

However, now, with fans and celebrities coming together to support Gunn – now, we must also say that it seems many people, fans and celebs, are disgusted at Gunn’s behaviour and feel he was fired justifiably – it seems there’s a chance that Disney may actually back peddle.

Here’s the new rumour via Variety: Sources say there has been a growing feeling that Gunn could be reinstated, especially because Marvel and Disney have been unusually radio-silent on who could replace him since the firing. Production is slated to start at the top of 2019, and following Gunn’s removal from the film, it was thought that Marvel and Disney would need to move quickly to replace him, since the replacement would likely have to do some work on the script.

With Walt Disney chairman Bob Iger out on vacation currently, insiders believed a decision would not be made until he returned to work. 

So, what do you all think? Should Gunn be brought back? Would it be bad for Disney to be seen to be pressured by fans online? Or would they be celebrated for admitting they made a mistake? Was it a mistake?

We want to know what you all think…

UPDATE:

And, Variety are now reporting that Disney are unlikely to hire him again after all:

At this point, the letter does not seem likely to save his job. Gunn’s firing was approved by Disney Studios chief Alan Horn, with his boss, company CEO Bob Iger weighing in on the final decision. The involvement of the highest levels of Disney signals that the cast pressure to rethink the Gunn ouster will struggle to gain internal support. “I don’t see Disney re-hiring him,” says one person close to the matter. “Those tweets were so horrible and Disney has a different standard than other studios.”

More as we get it…

 

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….