A few weeks prior to the premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy that would catapult a motley crew of actors and one barely relevant filmmaker into the highest tiers of Hollywood fame and adoration, James Gunn gathered around his lead, Chris Pratt, and the most fiercely loyal friend anyone could ask for, Dave Bautista, and declared, “Let’s promise to each other that we won’t let our egos get the best of us, that we’ll continue being kind to each other, continue being down-to-earth.”
A decade later, the cast (more famous now than they have ever been before, a state of existence that hardly allows them to remain down-to-earth anymore) mutters tearful goodbyes – having lived many lifetimes in the years since their first dysfunctional foray into Marvel and experiencing many, many mid-journey breakdowns en route to their one epic and definitive high.
Chris Pratt Ensures the Reinstatement of James Gunn
The tale of the Guardians’ off-screen camaraderie that witnessed the cast growing together – falling in love, bearing tragic losses, enduring crushing hardships, and rallying together to ensure the incredible comeback of James Gunn is a story for the ages. But it began with Chris Pratt – the level-headed leader of the cast who not only went on to become the Guardians of the Galaxy but one big family of strays, who before being brought together by the director, were essentially down-on-the-luck individuals scrounging to get by.
In 2018, when the news of James Gunn’s firing from Marvel reached him, a few expletives later, Pratt sat down to chart out a plan to get behind the petition that would ensure the director’s return. He eventually reached out to Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s former wife, a Kennedy royalty by blood, and the then-future mother-in-law of the Star-Lord actor. In the meanwhile, Sunday sermons at the church worked to anchor in Chris Pratt a strong sense of clarity about Gunn’s situation: “I was like, ‘This is about James. James is going to get this. This is going to be OK.’”
As Pratt and Zoe Saldaña met, sat, and talked with Marvel execs behind the scenes to arrive at a solution, the petition, signed and vetted by every person who Pratt had approached (and more), eventually saw the reinstatement of James Gunn as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy 3. The ousting of the man who had taken in a wildly dysfunctional crew of actors – whose first auditions were more impaired than their on-screen caricatures (and yet Gunn somehow saw the potential of them all together within seconds of meeting them) – became the greatest comeback story in Hollywood as he now rises to the top as one of the industry’s most coveted filmmakers.
Once the matter was done and dusted with, Zoe Saldaña claimed, “This was a man who took chances on us, and it just made sense for us to have his back when he needed it the most.”
The Firing of James Gunn is a Contentious Debate For Marvel
Marvel chief Kevin Feige claimed that the idea of Gunn not being a part of the saga’s ending was so sickening that the production hadn’t even formulated a list of replacement directors. Disney head, Alan Horn lost sleep over the firing which was executed on his express orders. Dave Bautista hurled insults at the studio, calling the situation “nauseating.” And yet, despite all the roiling emotions that worked to being the director back on board, he was let go – however temporarily – for old, resurfaced tweets that mentioned r*pe and pedophilia.
James Gunn had, at the time, apologized sincerely for his outrageous Twitter posts, and reports claim, his pleas of atonement and concession were accepted favorably by the masses. The tweets, years later, were brought out into the light by conservatives after political disagreements with the director’s outspoken liberal views and criticism of the 45th POTUS managed to offend several members who worked to unearth facts that worked to discredit and humiliate the filmmaker.
In the end, however, Gunn’s return, marked by a great emotional hurrah and the reaffirmation of the unbreakable unit that the Guardians had become over the years, all work to act as the savior to MCU’s failing vehicle and give it back the momentum it once had prior to its slow descent since Avengers: Endgame. The Guardians’ final stand with Vol 3 helmed by James Gunn will mark Marvel’s doom or rise for a long time to come.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 premieres on 5 May 2023.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
