Everything
For months, James Gunn was the subject of tabloids and online debates as the celebrated actor was shunned from Marvel and Disney. Last year, the film maker was fired following the resurfacing of decade-old crude and offensive tweets, by conservative critics. With Disney under pressure to take action he was taken off the third volume of Guardians of the Galaxy.
The main cast had a signed petition that was posted to social media and had threatened to walk if he was not rehired. Months later and it seemed he was gone for good, but in March he announced his surprise return.
Making his way back to the third instalment of the famed Marvel film, while the entire ordeal was quite dramatic from an outsiders perspective, it was seemingly beneficial for the 52-year-old. Talking to Associated Press, he revealed it made him a “better person”.
“I’m a better person than I was a year ago,” Gunn told The Associated Press. “It’s made me more creative and focused on the things that really matter to me, which are my friends, my relationships and the movies that I’m making.”
While he will also direct the DC sequel to Suicide Squad, his most recent film Bright Burn has thrust the award-winner back into the spotlight. And it was this most recent film that helped him through the past 12 months.
“There’s a lot of things that people talk about Hollywood-cutthroat this and Hollywood-bad that and all the things that are terrible about Hollywood. But the truth is … I have one really good gift … I’m attracted to really good people and I have chosen to put wonderful people around me, whether it’s the actors I work with, the crew members I work with, my, you know, the writers I would deal with, the studio people I deal with,” Gunn said. “There’s a lot of really good people in this industry.”
Brightburn is out now. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 is slated to drop in 2020 while Suicide Squad 2 is set to release into cinemas the next year, in 2021.
Welcome back, Gunn.
