James Gunn back on the stick for GotG3

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**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

An excellent decision, I trust you’ll agree

Incredibly poor tastes as the ‘jokes’ were, he showed genuine contrition. And who, hand on heart, can say they’ve never said or done things they deeply regret?

**Lance845**

Great news.

**LunarSol**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
An excellent decision, I trust you’ll agree

Incredibly poor tastes as the ‘jokes’ were, he showed genuine contrition. And who, hand on heart, can say they’ve never said or done things they deeply regret?

Literally no one actually wanted him to be fired outside of political contrivances. He'd actually already gone through the public trial/execution when he was announced as director of the first one. The whole thing was a calculated takedown that only worked because someone made a poorly researched snapped decision and Disney got stuck having to play along until things blew over and they could sweep it under the rug.

**timetowaste85**

Thank GOODNESS he's back. Glad Disney recanted on this one.

**Yodhrin**

LunarSol wrote:
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
An excellent decision, I trust you’ll agree

Incredibly poor tastes as the ‘jokes’ were, he showed genuine contrition. And who, hand on heart, can say they’ve never said or done things they deeply regret?

Literally no one actually wanted him to be fired outside of political contrivances. He'd actually already gone through the public trial/execution when he was announced as director of the first one. The whole thing was a calculated takedown that only worked because someone made a poorly researched snapped decision and Disney got stuck having to play along until things blew over and they could sweep it under the rug.

Indeed. "Told some edgy jokes once" is not a reason for anyone to lose their job, especially given half the reason Gunn was hired in the first place was to have a bit off that edgy style rub off on the highly corporate MCU.

I mean seriously, this disgusting "you joked about a thing I can only view as utterly serious, BURN THE WITCH!" thing has to just end. He didn't harass anybody, he didn't abuse anybody, he didn't call for anyone to suffer violence or harassment, he told a few jokes. People tell jokes I don't find funny all the time, yet I manage to prevent myself from becoming so performatively outraged over it that I call for them to be sacked.

**JohnHwangDD**

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
An excellent decision, I trust you’ll agree

Incredibly poor tastes as the ‘jokes’ were, he showed genuine contrition. And who, hand on heart, can say they’ve never said or done things they deeply regret?

It's good that Disney walked back their mistake, because he never should have been fired.

Also, he had nothing to apologize over. His jokes are the reason he was hired in the first place, and is the reason that Rocket is so popular.

**Horst**

Hey, unlike a lot of other Hollywood bigshots he's not a rapist. So he's OK in my book.

**timetowaste85**

Horst wrote:
Hey, unlike a lot of other Hollywood bigshots he's not a rapist. So he's OK in my book.

But....but...he made an off-color, insensitive joke!! People get offended easily, y'all! Won't somebody think of the delicate flowers who can't handle a joke?! Seriously, this world takes itself too seriously these days. I'm basically offended at how easily people get offended.

**Elemental**

Yodhrin wrote:

Indeed. "Told some edgy jokes once" is not a reason for anyone to lose their job, especially given half the reason Gunn was hired in the first place was to have a bit off that edgy style rub off on the highly corporate MCU.

I mean seriously, this disgusting "you joked about a thing I can only view as utterly serious, BURN THE WITCH!" thing has to just end. He didn't harass anybody, he didn't abuse anybody, he didn't call for anyone to suffer violence or harassment, he told a few jokes. People tell jokes I don't find funny all the time, yet I manage to prevent myself from becoming so performatively outraged over it that I call for them to be sacked.

If I was the Disney guy responsible for him, I'd make a condition of his re-employment "you are locked out of your Twitter account until three months after the release of the movie".

Seriously, this is why I never use Twitter and barely ever post anything public on Facebook. It seems like it's just too easy to start thinking what you say there is private, and forget that the sharks are always circling.

**LunarSol**

timetowaste85 wrote:
Horst wrote:
Hey, unlike a lot of other Hollywood bigshots he's not a rapist. So he's OK in my book.

But....but...he made an off-color, insensitive joke!! People get offended easily, y'all! Won't somebody think of the delicate flowers who can't handle a joke?! Seriously, this world takes itself too seriously these days. I'm basically offended at how easily people get offended.

This was none of that. Nobody cared. A very specific group targeted him to silence his anti-Trump tweets in part as a test to see if they could successfully manipulate the media into silencing him.

**LordofHats**

JohnHwangDD wrote:

Also, he had nothing to apologize over. His jokes are the reason he was hired in the first place, and is the reason that Rocket is so popular.

This.

As I said in a previous thread, there's a very absurd irony in hiring a man for his wit, and then firing him for that wit because he sometimes used it for off color humor a decade ago that isn't even that edgy in today's comedy market.

**H.B.M.C.**

I am genuinely surprised by this news.

I guess it's time to retire the "Oh now [person crucified in the media over meaningless 'offence'] won't get to direct GotG3!" jokes.

**Yodhrin**

LordofHats wrote:
JohnHwangDD wrote:

Also, he had nothing to apologize over. His jokes are the reason he was hired in the first place, and is the reason that Rocket is so popular.

This.

As I said in a previous thread, there's a very absurd irony in hiring a man for his wit, and then firing him for that wit because he sometimes used it for off color humor a decade ago that isn't even that edgy in today's comedy market.

I mean, it wasn't even that edgy in the comedy market of 10 years ago. Frankie Boyle's been kicking around longer than that and he made at least one or two paedophile jokes in every set, and I remember watching a *really* risque routine from a blond female American comic(I was pretty wasted at the time so I don't recall her name) about that time that had everything from a Catholic priest bit to late term abortion jokes.

I get that some folk's idea of "humour" never expands beyond the saccharine and anodyne pish you see on mainstream sitcoms, but the whole "rabble rabble rabble, you can NEVAR joke about that" shtick is just baffling. Just, like, don't listen to it/follow people with that sense of humour on social media?

**LordofHats**

I guess I wouldn't know. I didn't really watch comics until a few years ago, but definitely agree that people who don't have no idea the kind of jokes they're ready and willing to make. The kind of stuff that you'll see even on one of Comedy Central's broadcasted bits would probably never fly on most prime time television.

**H.B.M.C.**

Yodhrin wrote:
I mean, it wasn't even that edgy in the comedy market of 10 years ago. Frankie Boyle's been kicking around longer than that and he made at least one or two paedophile jokes in every set, and I remember watching a *really* risque routine from a blond female American comic(I was pretty wasted at the time so I don't recall her name) about that time that had everything from a Catholic priest bit to late term abortion jokes.

I get that some folk's idea of "humour" never expands beyond the saccharine and anodyne pish you see on mainstream sitcoms, but the whole "rabble rabble rabble, you can NEVAR joke about that" shtick is just baffling. Just, like, don't listen to it/follow people with that sense of humour on social media?

I watched a Jimmy Carr special yesterday which had a joke that was literally:

"Bought some Viagra the other day. On the box it says 'Keep away from children'. What kind of person do they think I am??? Like I can't keep up an erection around a child!"

Crowd laughed their asses off. Good thing he didn't post it on Twitter though. Digital crucifixion would await!

Hell, right at the start of the show he talks about the whole idea of how you can only joke about things you've experienced, and then immediately says "So, these two paedophiles walk into a bar...". The whole thing is nonsense.

**AegisGrimm**

Good for him. There's a reason I don't complain about my job or post too many hobby photos on Facebook. I don't want to make a dumb mistake and post something public because my coworkers troll my facebook account (and those of friends) ALL the time when they are bored, trying to find things to make fun of me for.

**MonkeyBallistic**

It’s easy to forget that 10 years ago social media was still very new. There was a level of naivety about how people used it.

Anyway, I was so happy to hear the news. GotG are, for me, the highlight of the MCU. Loved the first two movies, was delighted they had such a big role in Infinity War. It’s just a shame that we now have to wait a bit longer for the third movie, but sense has prevailed imho.

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

The delay could yet prove beneficial.

It seems clear the team will play a significant role in Endgame. Well. Rocket will.

But assuming there’ll be resurrections all round, the delay allows for tweaks to the script and plot to better reflect bits that land particularly well, and bits that might prove jarring.

From memory, the only other one to have had this sort of difficulty was Ant-Man? And I don’t recall that being actively delayed? I may be wrong on that though!

**Lance845**

Well Ant Man was originally planned as a phase 1 movie. But the story plan kept adjusting in those early days and fiege kept pushing it back which required script adjustments to fit it into the new time line.

**BaconCatBug**

When Disney fired James Gunn, they said it was because his statements were unacceptable. By rehiring him, they are effectively saying those statements are acceptable.

He shouldn't have been fired in the first place but it's hypocritical of them to re-hire him.

But then again, this is the same Hollywood that supported Roman Polanski, a literal child rapist, so who knows anymore.

**insaniak**

BaconCatBug wrote:
When Disney fired James Gunn, they said it was because his statements were unacceptable. By rehiring him, they are effectively saying those statements are acceptable.

That's certainly one way to interpret it. The other way would be that by rehiring him, they're saying that comments made a decade ago don't automatically reflect the character of a person now.

If every employer fired employees for stupid things they said when they were younger, there would be precious few people employed, anywhere.

**H.B.M.C.**

BaconCatBug wrote:
By rehiring him, they are effectively saying those statements are acceptable.

*sigh*

No they're not.

This is just another example of the no condemnation = implicit support fallacy.

"Hitler breathed air. You breathe air! You must support Hitler!".

**Graphite**

Sure I saw somewhere that Disney had never even made any attempts to hire someone else - looks like they were just waiting for the whole thing to calm down before re-hiring.

**Ouze**

insaniak wrote:
That's certainly one way to interpret it. The other way would be that by rehiring him, they're saying that comments made a decade ago don't automatically reflect the character of a person now.

What has changed between then and now? This isn't any more true today than it was 6 months ago or whatever ago.

He should never have been fired in the first place, but what BCB is asking isn't exactly unreasonable either. Why was his twitter history so damaging to the brand 6 months ago, but not now?

**insaniak**

Presumably because people were kicking up a disproportionate amount of stink over it six months ago, and in the intervening time Disney have either realised that the people complaining were significantly fewer than the people angry about him being dumped, or reconsidered their initial kneejerk reaction and decided it was the wrong approach.

**reds8n**

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/03/17/the-suicide-squad-is-a-total-reboot-according-to-the-producer/

When it was announced the other day that James Gunn would be returning to direct the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie the internet responded very positively [more or less]. However, there were some fans that were concerned. In the months since Gunn was let go by Marvel, he signed on to write, and possibly direct though it hasn’t been confirmed, The Suicide Squad for DC. Producer Peter Safran was interviewed by JoBlo and was asked if there was pressure to get The Suicide Squad done faster now that Gunn is back with Marvel.

“No, it was all handled incredibly elegantly and everybody knows on both sides that Suicide Squad is the priority today and he’ll finish that movie and then everybody knows that his next film will be Guardians. It’s the best of all possible both worlds, I think, for fans and for James Gunn himself.”

Safran went on to confirm something some of us didn’t know and that’s the fact that The Suicide Squad will be a total reboot of the series. THe goes on to say that they aren’t calling Suicide Squad 2 for that exact reason.

“First of all, we don’t call it Suicide Squad 2 ‘cause it’s a total reboot, so it’s The Suicide Squad and I think people should be extremely excited about it. It’s everything you would hope from a James Gunn script and I think that says a lot and that promises a lot and I know that we will deliver a lot.”

Finally, the DC and Marvel rivalry has come up again with Gunn working for both companies. While the rivalry has been very present with the fans the actors and creatives at Marvel and DC, at least on the movie side, haven’t shown any hostility to each other. Safran goes on to echo that he feels no ill will toward Marvel and Gunn feels the same way.

“And you know what I love about James directing for both Marvel and DC is he has always espoused the view that that which unites comic book and superhero lovers is much greater than that which divides us. Because, there’s always been this Marvel/DC rivalry, which he has said, and I agree, is absurd. There’s room for everybody and certainly that which unites us all is far greater than that which divides us, so hopefully they’ll see that you can be both a Marvel and a DC fan and the world won’t spin off its axis.”

.. a reboot by the 2nd movie ?!

.. TBf that is pretty much exactly like the current comics publishing scene so ..

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

HOLY REMAKES BATMAN!

QUICKLY ROBIN, TO THE BAT-REBOOT-BUTTON!

**Voss**

'This rivalry seems bizarre to us, because we (Hollywood actors, directors and writers) honestly don't care'. And probably can't tell the difference (saw an article on whoever played the Supreme Intelligence in Cap Marvel, who basically went to her grandkids and said 'WTF am I playing?')

I'm actually curious how the respective fan bases will take that, because they do care. They care a lot.

**insaniak**

I've never understood the rivalry in the fan bases either, but that might just be because I have favorite characters from both sides...

**Mad Doc Grotsnik**

I've never really understood nerd rivalry at all.

Yes, people can be irritating and relentless in their views. But at the end of the day, we're all just Nerds. Most of us will have been social outcasts at school because we were Nerds. So why continue to inflict it on each other into adult life?