Hollywood erupted when Disney fired director James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after a bunch of old offensive tweets of his surfaced. Well, not erupted but it was a pretty big deal and it really caused one hell of a stir in Hollywood. Gunn was one of the most prominent figures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe having directed one of the best films in the MCU, Guardians of the Galaxy and its sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
The firing was a controversial move on Disney’s part with plenty of fans and actors expressing support for the filmmaker. The cast of the Guardians films were also pretty vocal about it especially Dave Bautista who plays Drax. We know that these guys love him but what do the overlords at Disney really have to say about all this? Aside from “You’re fired” that is.
Disney CEO Bob Iger has been farely silent on the matter of Gunn’s firing but it looks like he’s finally opened up about it. Speaking to THR, Iger was asked on how involved he was in decisions like this, bringing into question the cancellation of Roseanne and the firing of Gunn. He said:
“I would say there is a blend of my helping to make the decision to my supporting the decisions that have been made. Roseanne was completely unanimous. We discussed how it would be communicated and when because there were a number of entities that had to be properly filled in, but the decision was completely unanimous. The James Gunn decision was brought to me as a unanimous decision of a variety of executives at the studio and I supported it…I haven’t second-guessed their decision”
I’m not going to pretend that I fully comprehend what he’s saying here but it does look like the response was carefully made to avoid any backlash. As for the subject of Gunn, it looks like Iger was just doing what he’s supposed to do for the company whether or not he agrees with it. It does seem like it wasn’t actually his idea but he didn’t really object to it either. Well, Disney is definitely adamant about this but we’ll see how this decision pans out in the future.
Source: THR
