James Gunn is in for “Suicide Squad 2.”
The controversy surrounding the director of the two “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies dominated the summer. After decade old tweets resurfaced (many have posited they were brought to the limelight by conservatives trying to “get even” after what went down with “Roseanne”), Disney fired Gunn from the third “Guardians” of the movie.
The cast, including Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, stood behind Gunn and released a statement supporting him. Many fans also took Gunn’s side, while others saw his old tweets, which included pedophilia jokes, as too depraved. Disney was in a tough spot, but Marvel’s Kevin Feige stood behind Bob Iger and the Mouse House with Gunn’s termination.
“Suicide Squad 2” has been up in the air for a while. David Ayer backed out of directing the sequel to do the Harley Quinn spinoff movie “Birds of Prey” alongside Margot Robbie, with Mel Gibson in talks to replace him. Now, James Gunn has been nabbed to write and possibly direct for Marvel’s rival superhero cinematic universe.
This isn’t the first time DC has taken one of Marvel’s displeased directors and put them with a different comic book movie. After being very public about his troubles working on “Avengers: Age of Ultron” director Joss Whedon was chosen to take over “Justice League” after Zack Snyder’s family tragedy.
It didn’t work out so well for “Justice League” and it’s fair to say that it’s viewed as greatly inferior to the first two “Avengers” films. In other words, their plan hasn’t guaranteed success in the past.
HOLLYWOOD, CA – JULY 21: Director James Gunn attends The World Premiere of Marvel’s epic space adventure “Guardians of the Galaxy,” directed by James Gunn and presented in Dolby 3D and Dolby Atmos at the Dolby Theatre. July 21, 2014 Hollywood, CA (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
With Gunn now on board to write, and possibly direct the “Suicide Squad” sequel, will he be given the creative freedoms that Disney can’t supply their directors? Will that be for the best, or will Gunn’s lesser qualities, like his sometimes bad taste in humor, prevail? I imagine that the parents who were so offended by Gunn’s tweets won’t be taking their kids to see “Suicide Squad 2.”
After Dave Bautista, who played Drax in “Guardians” movies, was especially vocal about his displeasure with Gunn’s firing and Disney, he may find himself with a role in “Suicide Squad 2” instead of “Guardians of the Galaxy 3.”
In hiring Gunn, do you think DC is limiting their audience by alienating parents or do you think they’re bringing in more viewers who are standing behind the former “Guardians” director?
Comments