In news that will likely comes as no surprise, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has been indefinitely delayed.
Following the firing of director James Gunn, Guardians 3’s future was always a little up in the air for now, and now Marvel Studios and Disney are said to be regrouping as they’ve removed the picture from its May 2020 release date.
If you remember, this all came about after some of Gunn’s Twitter posts from 2012 and beyond resurfaced. Some saw the posts as being poorly thought-out humour, others saw it as bad taste, and others thought they were utterly disgraceful. Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, when the content includes topics such as rape and paedophilia, you can’t help but feel that Disney were over a barrel a tad when it came to firing Gunn from Guardians 3. But then again, Disney has its own questionable history, too.
At the end of the day, James Gunn is now no longer a part of this third Guardians film, and the House of Mouse has reiterated how they won’t be bringing him back, regardless of what the fans and the cast say. On that front, Dave Bautista – Guardians’ Drax – has been extremely vocal with his anger at how Disney has handled the situation, and the core cast themselves are said to have held meetings where they all agree that they want Gunn back in the director’s chair; to the extent that they sent a signed letter asking for Disney to rehire him.
Not only was Gunn tasked with helming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but he was also going to be overseeing the whole Marvel Cosmic Universe as Marvel Studios and Disney looked to expand upon their tales in the stars.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the production on Guardians 3 has now been shut down indefinitely and talent have been released to find other work in the meantime. Pre-production was underway, with the movie to start shooting early next year.
One mild rumbling out there is that Thor: Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi could be a candidate to replace James Gunn on Guardians 3, and to be fair, that could be an inspired choice – particularly with Ragnarok being the most tonally similar MCU movie to the first two Guardians of the Galaxy pictures.
As ever, expect more on all of this as it continues to develop.
