In contrast to rumors from earlier today, which claimed the exact opposite, The Hollywood Reporter is now telling us that Disney currently plans to use James Gunn’s script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, after all. As it seems there’s no chance of the fired director being rehired due to his inappropriate tweets from yesteryear resurfacing last month, fans have been wondering what would become of the completed screenplay Gunn handed into Marvel execs earlier this year.
In a piece which reveals that other major studios are ready to snatch the director up if the House of Mouse completely cuts ties with him, THR mentions that any such move to, say, Warner Bros. would be complicated because “sources claim Disney plans on using Gunn’s script for the third [Guardians] movie.”
At the very least, this is good news for fans of Dave Bautista and the character of Drax the Destroyer. The former WWE star has definitely not been pulling his punches on social media since the Gunn controversy began. Most recently, he claimed that he’d ask Disney to let him back out of his contract if they ditched the former director’s script for Guardians 3.
When unsubstantiated rumors recently pointed to Disney chucking off said script, it looked like Bautista would be phoning up his bosses pretty sharpish. However, it now seems that Drax will stick around in the MCU for the foreseeable future. Unless, of course, there’s another shock development in this ongoing situation, which must be the biggest knock to the franchise in ten years.
You can see why Disney would be keen to retain Gunn’s screenplay here, as it would seriously set Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 back if they had to start from scratch. That said, you can bet that those who supported his firing won’t be pleased that Gunn’s still involved in the production in any capacity. Seeing as the GotG movies are effectively his babies, though, there was always going to be a lot of the filmmaker’s influence on the threequel, whether they used his script or not.
