In 2018, James Gunn was fired by the Marvel machine over “indefensible and inconsistent” tweets that he already apologized for years before. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 was without its director, its leader, so the cast stepped in.
Chris Pratt (who plays Star-Lord) organized an open letter to Disney, with guidance from his future mother-in-law Maria Shriver, asking for Gunn to be rehired. He also texted the director Bible verses, like this one: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
Meanwhile, here’s how Dave Bautista (Drax) handled it:
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. Its also pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis . That’s just how I feel https://t.co/Ym4FwruVDu
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 5, 2018
“Dave and Chris are so different in their approaches,” Gunn told the Hollywood Reporter. “Chris is like, ‘How do we do this methodically and take it one step at a time?’ Dave is like, ‘F*ck you.’” Their combined good cop/bad cop methods worked: Gunn was hired back for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
It came down to a change of heart from [Alan] Horn, the Disney chairman, who had the growing sensation he’d made the wrong call. Gunn heard he was having trouble sleeping over the firing. “It’s a hundred percent because Alan Horn felt sick. He did it because he thought it was the right thing to do,” says Gunn.
“Everything he did subsequently was first class,” says Horn. “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.”
The Superman: Legacy director still gets emotional thinking about how the cast banded together for him. “I just got teary because it was like, f*ck, I loved all you guys so much and I just realized this journey we had been through together,” he said. Gunn can thank Bautista by casting him as Superman.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 comes out on May 5th.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)