You may remember James Gunn being fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 only to return to helm the project. A new interview takes a peek behind the curtain and shows how Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, and Dave Bautista all played an integral role in getting him back.
On July 20, 2018, it was announced that Gunn was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after some offensive tweets from his past had resurfaced. On March 15, 2019, however, Gunn was reinstated by Disney to helm the third Guardians of the Galaxy film.
But how did this change of heart happen? It appears that you can thank three of the Guardians of the Galaxy main stars, Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, and Dave Bautista for that. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, it was revealed that during that dark time, Pratt was sending words of encouragement in the form of Bible verses to Gunn and penned an open letter to Disney asking for Gunn's reinstatement. “If one person didn't sign it, then that becomes the story, said Sean Gunn (James' brother and star of the Guardians of the Galaxy films).
It was also revealed that Pratt and Saldaña privately met with Marvel president and chief creative officer Kevin Feige, co-president Louis D'Esposito, and the then-head of production Victoria Alonso about reinstating Gunn. Dave Bautista, on the other hand, took to Twitter to call out Disney saying, “I will do what Im legally obligated to do but @Guardians without @JamesGunn is not what I signed up for. GOTG w/o @JamesGunn just isn’t GOTG. It[‘]s also pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis. That's just how I feel.”
Speaking about the two vastly different approaches taken by his stars, Gunn said, “Dave and Chris are so different in their approaches. Chris is like, ‘How do we do this methodically and take it one step at a time?” Dave is like, ‘F**k you.'”
Either way, it worked out and Gunn was reinstated to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Speaking on why they went out of their way to help him get rehired, Saldaña said, “This was a man who took chances on us, and it just made sense for s to have his back when he needed it the most.”
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 brings the team back together one last time for an adventure before Gunn heads off to Warner Bros. to play a Kevin Fiege-like role for DC. The first two films in the franchise grossed over $1 billion globally, and expect the third to follow the trend of box office success. Pratt, Saldaña, and Bautista all return alongside Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, and Sean Gunn while Will Poulter will portray Adam Warlock.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will be released on May 5.
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