One of the biggest industry stories last year was Marvel/Disney firing James Gunn, the writer/director of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. GOTG was/is a wildly popular and lucrative franchise, and it wasn’t like James Gunn screwed up the franchise at all. No, Gunn was fired after MRA dirtbags dug up dozens/hundreds of Gunn’s old tweets from 2008-2012 in which he made a lot of really gross and inappropriate jokes about rape and pedophilia. I covered it thoroughly at the time, and I came down on the side of “James Gunn deserved to be fired, even if his firing was a direct result of MAGA Deplorables waging a campaign against him.” Two wrongs, etc.
That happened about seven months ago, and a lot of people involved with the Marvel films totally caped for Gunn and argued that it was all in the past and he shouldn’t be punished for it, etc. Disney held their ground, although I remember that there was some talk about how Marvel executives were mad about how high-handed Disney was being. It’s clear though – Disney wants no part of James Gunn’s future career. And so he went to Warner Bros. He’s directing the second Suicide Squad film?
James Gunn is returning to the director’s chair. Gunn, who was fired from helming the third installment in his Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, is in negotiations to direct the second Suicide Squad film, the follow-up to the Warner Bros. 2016 hit that featured DC Comics anti-heroes as the leads. The move is not entirely unexpected as Gunn was already writing the script for the sequel, which Warner Bros. just slotted for a August 2021 release.
The dealmaking does, however, solidify that the new Suicide Squad film will be his next directorial effort. Disney fired Gunn from his Marvel franchise in July after old tweets from 2008 and 2009 resurfaced in which he made insensitive and controversial jokes.
The pic has the title of The Suicide Squad and is not being labeled a direct sequel but as a relaunch. The 2016 original movie featured the characters Deadshot, Harley Quinn, the Joker, Captain Boomerang and Killer Croc, who are forced into the service of the government in exchange for lighter prison sentences. Sources say that Gunn’s focus is to take the franchise in a new direction with a mostly all-new cast of characters and actors. Sources also say that the project is also very much rooted in Gunn’s vibe, as seen in the Guardians movies.
I eventually saw the first Suicide Squad movie and it was such a chopped-up trainwreck. You could really tell that they did a bunch of reshoots and they edited out so much of Jared Leto’s Joker, all in favor of giving Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn a bigger role. What I’m saying is that I couldn’t care less about the sequel, but I’m not the audience for it anyway. I’m also saying that for all the breast-beating about how James Gunn’s LIFE WAS DESTROYED by… facing consequences for being a disgusting pervert on social media, he still ended up with another big job. Remember, James Gunn is a white man. He only had to spend a few months with a “destroyed career/reputation” and then he was back.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
He apologized, never pulled the woe is me card, kept a low profile….. right????
I don’t follow him enough but people said that he grew from those tweets in the hereafter.
I’m not surprised but I kind of indifferent about it as well.
I’m so relieved he was able to move forward in this culture of “metoo” and “political correctness” just slightly impeding the lives of assholes everywhere.
James attended St. Louis University High School, a private, all-boys Jesuit school with tuition of $15k.
Compared that to Covington Catholic of KY and it’s tuition of $6k.
So yeah his doucheness, victim-playing, homophobia is highly celebrated in his hometown of St. Louis, Mo.
So what about all the other problematic people and their hometown’s.
What elite utopia are you from?
How did he play the victim?
And did he make homophobic jokes? I didn’t follow it that closely.
I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I didn’t agree with this particular firing. They were old tweets and he apologized. Not that I ever made gross “jokes” on the Internet, but I certainly wouldn’t want to be judged by things I said in poor taste several years ago. We all evolve. If he were ACTING inappropriately, that’s different. But just tweeting? Meh. I think it was blown out of proportion.
I’m with you on this.
You’re gross that is all
The “jokes” that lets face it are desensitizing to pedophilia were tweeted to a now CONVICTED pedophile who had countless victims. He wrote a blog post about laughing on set while a child was sexually abused by a monkey instead of keeping that child safe. He attended pedophilia themed “to catch a predator” parties and this wasn’t a few jokes. It was THOUSANDS of references to pedophilia and abuse over a span of just a few years.
Pedophilia is not a joke, please stop minimizing it. Thinking things like this desensitizes society to things like this. This wasn’t one or two bad tweets and over sensitive cancel culture. This is a man who constantly talked about pedophilia, with convicted pedophiles, allowed children to be abused on his set while he relished in observing it and attended pedophilia themed events.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills when people act like this is no big deal.
That’s the thing, the number of jokes…he seemed quite fixated. We always talk about how Woody Allen and Louis CK put their issues on display in their “art” and hid in plain sight. Disney probably didn’t want to take the chance that James Gunn was doing the same. I don’t blame them for firing him.
I don’t know what his deal is and I think he handled the firing well, but I think Disney did the right thing. They have a brand to protect.
I wasn’t aware of the extent of his issues and apologize for speaking without better knowledge of the situation. I sadly have family members who were assaulted as kids and certainly don’t take it lightly.
@WOW Yeesh, I skimmed your comment and replied with my own thoughts without reading what all you said…talk about misrespresenting the facts!
He made a couple dozen jokes about pedophilia and rape – WAY TOO MANY – but nowhere near the thousands that you’ve claimed. He deleted five years of tweets which = thousands, they weren’t all pedophilia and rape jokes, FFS.
He was not on set for the monkey thing, and it did not happen on “his set.” He blogged and tweeted about a story he’d heard from a friend. He found it hilarious, which is disgusting, but he was not “standing by” and watching it happen.
“Allowed children to be abused on his set while he relished in observing it” ???? WTF are you even talking about?? Are you confusing him with someone else? Yuck. I will never respond in agreement to a comment I have not fully read ever again!
He apologized before they even came up publicly for him. They are the edge-lord jokes that I, as a huge horror hound, would absolutely expect from someone who got their start on Troma. The jokes are absolutely not reflective of his behavior towards women. He still has a sweet relationship with Jenna Fisher and has given women in his movies space to be complicated, gross, and awesome. This is why the spirit of the law is more important than the letter of the law in looking at how problematic a person is. That’s not to say his jokes weren’t problematic. However, he realized and owned and apologized before anyone came to him publicly. He also never sent his friends out to talk shows to talk about how sad he was or what a good guy he is. And he didn’t re-enter the scene like Louis C.K., doubling down on the toxicity.
People talk a lot about reconciliation, and how feminists won’t give guys the space to fuck up or reform. I can give James Gunn the space and I can give Dan Harmon the space because his is the ONLY honest apology I ever heard. We just want to be able to trust that you can change and learn from your mistakes, and an honest apology (honest because it came before the demand for an apology, or honest in dedicating an hour long podcast to examining the attitudes that led you to harass one of your writers) goes a LONG way.
Dan Harmon’s apology was sincere and on point. And I agree, it’s the only example I can think of where there was true empathy and understanding of their toxic behaviour
@PPP +1. He was steamrolled by people who ruined my and other women-in-tech’s lives, and those same people moved on to politics, Ghostbusters, and Gunn. The man who walked into a pizza parlor armed to the teeth, thinking there was a secret pedophilia ring there? The man who mowed down Heather Heyer? These people are all part of the same social-media tide, whose numbers have been bolstered by Russian troll-farms in order to give the impression of a still-deeper national divide.
They tried to do the same thing to Michael Ian Black — to paint him as a pedophile using screengrabs of his old jokes, a lot of which are tacky — but it didn’t stick, in part because he just laughed it off rather than taking the allegations seriously.
Gunn has apologized and, more than that, has walked a different walk for a very long time — and I take him at his word that he realized long ago that his “edgelord” sense of humor was adding nothing of real value or benefit to the world. He didn’t need to be “caught” to come to that realization, which I really respect.
(and for sure, no one needs to like him or excuse his jokes or find them “funny,” but I think the full context here is important — his political tweets got him in trouble with a group of people who are very good at mobilizing and campaigning and peddling narratives)
Good lord why not give other people a chance to succeed why uphold these disgusting men NO THX wont be seeing any movie he’s involved with
Always forgotten in Gunn’s story are the “To Catch a Predator” parties he attended, where the women dressed as children because pedophilia is so funny.
What!? I never heard this. Is this legit?
There are photos. He’s dressed like a priest and posing with women in pigtails, one is holding a baby doll, and the other is sucking her thumb. Google image “James Gunn To Catch a Predator” and you’ll find them.
WTF? Sounds… creepy disgusting terrible.
Not the least bit surprising. Every studio has their line and it’s no surprise Disney’s would be firmer than WB. Disney zealously guards their “family friendly” label, you can bet anyone cast in Marvel or Star Wars projects is being carefully vetted and considered.
Interesting to note that this is a reboot. Probably everyone other than Margot Robbie is a question mark. And James Gunn HATES Leto, so Leto’s Joker is done…thank god!!
Gunn hates Leto? Whaa? Spill the tea!
(Pretty please.)
Some of it is just rumours…but considering Gunn publicly implied Leto likes underage girls I’m inclined to believe there’s no love lost there:
https://mobile.twitter.com/jamesgunn/status/996637656913141760?lang=en
I swear, people need to learn how to delete their embarrassing/likely-to-cause-issues social media posts. I know people can screen grab and save them but still, if you get famous go back and delete that ish. We’ve had social media for over 10 years now, people should know how it works. I’ve never posted anything racist or gross on par with this dude but I’ve still gone back and deleted stuff that is embarrassing. It’s not that hard. There is also the notion of not posting stuff like this for the world to see. Save it for private time. I have no sympathy for anyone that gets into trouble over something dumb that they’ve posted.
Save pedophilia for private time and not be so public about it especially with convicted pedophiles that you are tweeting at, blog posts about a child being abused on set, attending pedophile themed parties? That was your take away from this? Be a pedophile or at least accepting of pedophilia is a less public way?
I didn’t mean that, which is obvious; you’re just being argumentative. I don’t know about the specific nature of this guys tweets, it was just a general opinion about people continually getting in trouble for putting dumb stuff on social media.
I don’t support pedophilia in any way and you can get bent for assuming otherwise.
Not too long ago somebody tweeted about who’s gonna direct the next GOTG, and they threw some names around – including Edgar Wright, Taika Waititi and Chris Miller. These three all responded in support for Gunn’s rehiring.
So support for him within the industry extends quite far.
First time I want a DC movie to succeed over Marvel.
But “cancelling” people (and some should absolutely be cancelled) we do not allow for people to change and recognize their mistakes.