James Gunn, known for his energetic style emphasizing on-screen in Superhero films has been one of the most successful superhero movie directors working today. The filmmaker has created a strong fanbase with his own approach to developing characters, subtle emotions, and often funny humor adding spice to the entertainment on screen.
To his merit, Gunn has several successful movies to add to his resume including MCU’s The Guardians Trilogy and DC’s Suicide Squad and Pacemaker. As far as directing the superheroes, Gunn’s style and vision give the audience a fresh, sometimes comic relief unlike the grave and sad superhero plots that go in the traditional sense.
Why Did Alan Horn Fire James Gunn?
The news of Disney executive Alan Horn firing James Gunn created quite a buzz among fans. It was a tough decision to let go of the director whose vision has colored the Guardians’ space.
In 2018, the Guardians were in shock to know that James Gunn was fired as director following some decade-old tweets of Gunn resurfaced by conservative personalities where he casually joked about rape and pedophilia “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,” Horn announced on Twitter.
“In that moment, I was like, ‘This is about James. James is going to get this. This is going to be OK,’ ” said Chris Pratt who plays Star-Lord in the franchise. “Although I don’t support James Gunn’s inappropriate jokes from years ago, he is a good man,” Pratt wrote in an Instagram post. Evidently, Pratt advocated bringing the director back to the franchise.
Also read: James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy Makes Final Move to End Henry Cavill’s $50M Superman Career
How Did the Guardians Faught For James Gunn?
Pratt shared an open letter co-signed by the cast of the trilogy on the Instagram post. “I’d personally love to see him reinstated as director of Volume 3. If you please, read the following statement- signed by our entire cast,” the actor captioned.
The letter also referenced a Change.org petition asking for Gunn to be reinstated. As of writing the piece, the petition was signed by 4,29,631 people after Horn’s firing of Gunn on July 20.
“We fully support James Gunn. We were all shocked by his abrupt firing last week and have intentionally waited these ten days to respond in order to think, pray, listen, and discuss,” the letter stated.
“In that time we have been encouraged by the outpouring of support from fans and members of the media who wish to see James reinstated as director of Volume 3, as well as discouraged by those who were so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories around him.”
Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker; James Gunn’s brother, Sean Gunn, and Pom Klementieff have signed the letter.
Alan Horn Finally Broke Silence On James Gunn Incident
Following the removal of the director, Horn admitted that he had made the wrong decision to fire Gunn from the studio.
Now, for the first time, Horn addressed his decision to fire Gunn and how he felt about it. Despite being fired from the job, Gunn’s self-presentation proved how much of a “gentleman” he was. Commenting on rehiring Gunn, the former chairmen said that it just “felt like the right thing to do.”
“Everything he did subsequently was first class. He was such a gentleman about it in the ensuing months that we just brought him back. It felt like the right thing to do. I hold him in absolute high regard,” he added.
Gunn’s final MCU movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled to hit the theatre on May 5, 2023.
Source: The Direct.
