The Marvel Cinematic Universe constantly releases new content, both in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Despite this, folks who have been watching the Marvel movies in order know certain franchises are fan favorites. Chief among them is Guardians of the Galaxy, although the trilogy was briefly in jeopardy when James Gunn was temporarily fired by Marvel. And Chris Pratt recently recalled standing up for his frequent collaborator during that time.
Guardians 3's ending offered a happy conclusion for the motley crew of cosmic heroes, but there was a time when that movie was in serious jeopardy. Namely because Gunn was fired by Marvel over resurfaced tweets that were deemed offensive. While appearing on the podcast Happy Sad Confused, Pratt recalled this moment, sharing:
I remember it all very clearly. I remember talking to Lou D'Esposito at Marvel. And I don’t think Lou would mind me saying this, but he goes, ‘We gotta let him go.’ And I was like, ‘You’re making a mistake. You are making a mistake. You can’t, no. You can’t.’ He’s like, ‘Dude, it has to happen.’ And then it happened, and I reached out to James. I was like, ‘Dude, this is not over. This is not over.’ And I started, like at that point, just praying on it and strategizing.
This reaction seems about right. Perhaps more than any other Marvel title, Guardians of the Galaxy is a director-driven series. Everything from James Gunn's dance moves, to his taste in music, to his sense of humor shaped the movies and made them so successful. So it seemed like a franchise-ending catastrophe when he was fired.
Shortly after this happened, the Guardians of the Galaxy cast penned a letter in solidarity with James Gunn. And eventually did an about-face, and brought him back into the gold for both Guardians 3 and the Holiday Special. In the same interview, Chris Pratt spoke about the filmmaker being asked to return to Marvel, saying:
At the end of the day, the credit for [James] coming back belongs to the folks at Marvel and to Alan Horn at Disney, because I think he just woke up one day and was like, ‘This is not right.’ And I think there are certain people who do things that get them canceled, and then they behave in a way directly after that affirms that choice. I think James was incredibly classy the entire time and, from the outside, once the smoke settled and the dust settled and you looked at the situation, you realized that it was truly unfair. And so he got that job back because it was a glaring mistake to ever fire him for that.
Cancel culture was at the height of its power when James Gunn was removed from the Guardians franchise, and he is one of the few examples of someone being able to fully recover from it. Not only was he welcomed back to Marvel, but he's now the co-CEO of the DCU. That position was at least partly acquired thanks to his work on The Suicide Squad (streaming with a HBO Max subscription), which is a job he took after he was canned by Marvel.
From the looks of it, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 might be the final installment in the franchise, and Gunn's swan song at Marvel. While the movie's ending claimed that Chris Pratt's Star-Lord would be back, the filmmaker is now busy as the architect of the DCU.
The next Marvel movie hitting theaters is Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31st as part of the 2026 movie release list. A DC title is coming one month earlier: Supergirl on June 26th.
