James Gunn Fired From ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3’ After Controversial Tweets Were Discovered

UPDATE: Gunn will not be taking part in Sony’s Hall H panel this evening, as planned (via Variety).

Original story follows…

In a shocking turn of events, even without a massive presence at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios has somehow managed to steal headlines with the news that filmmaker James Gunn, known for his first two massive “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, has been fired from the third installment by Disney.

You read that right. James Gunn is no longer part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Wow.

Here’s the official statement from Disney chairman Alan Horn (via Deadline):

“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.”

This all started two days ago when Gunn inserted himself in the whole Mark Duplass/Ben Shapiro Twitter debacle. As everyone started piling on Duplass for his tweet endorsing conservative pundit Shapiro, Gunn stepped in and tweeted his support for Duplass, while also condemning Shapiro in the process.

As you might imagine, this angered liberal-minded people who didn’t think it was a good look for Gunn to support Duplass at the time, and conservative folks who didn’t like one of their own getting insulted. To follow this up, Gunn went on a Twitter tirade against President Donald Trump about the Russia investigation. Not that this is news to anyone, as Gunn has never been shy about sharing his political beliefs. However, after putting a target on his back from the Duplass situation, people decided to scour his Twitter history. An outrage backlash, of sorts.

And let’s just say, what they found wasn’t good for someone who works for Disney.

They uncovered tweets making light of pedophilia, rape, and other things. Even though these were clearly jokes that were posted almost a decade ago, once they went viral, Disney had no other choice than to pull the plug on Gunn. The real question now is, “What next?”

Gunn was DEEP into pre-production on “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” In fact, reports started circulating that the film was going to begin production in early 2019. At this point, Disney has a finished script and can move forward with a new director. However, that’s not the only project Gunn was working on with Marvel Studios. Kevin Feige had previously said that Gunn was integral in the expansion of the Cosmic side of the MCU. Now, what? Who will they hire for ‘Guardians 3?’ Is there a black eye on the franchise for those MCU fans that love Gunn’s work?

This is also horrible timing for Gunn in another way. Gunn was deeply involved in a new secret horror project that was going to announced at SDCC in Hall H later this afternoon. Word on whether or not Gunn will show up or decide to remove himself is still up in the air. You have to imagine all eyes will be on the presentation, however.

With all this uncertainty, one thing is for sure – the MCU, and especially the Cosmic side of the universe, is now without it’s biggest creative voice. We’ll just have to wait and see what exactly that means for the future.