James Gunn Was Supposed To Shepherd Marvel’s Cosmic Universe

You’ve heard of the MCU, but what about the space-set Marvel Cosmic Universe?

Thanks to the likes of Thor: Ragnarok and James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy series, Marvel’s flagship franchise has literally reached for the stars, and the MCU’s cosmic side will only continue to grow and evolve in Phase 4… and beyond.

But it’ll do so without James Gunn in its ranks, now that Disney has formally severed ties with the writer-director due to a series of crude and offensive Tweets from 10 years ago. This is a situation that is very much still in flux, what with prominent Hollywood figures like Michael Rooker, Dave Bautista and Karen Gillan voicing their solidarity with Gunn, while one Change.org petition is fast approaching 200,000 signatures, as it attempts to sway Disney’s decision. Or, at the very least, rally behind the erstwhile Guardians director as the fallout continues.

And make no mistake, this termination throws a spanner in the works for Marvel Studios, given James Gunn was initially supposed to shepherd the cosmic side of Marvel’s franchise – think Captain Marvel and The Eternals – before everything went up in smoke.

That means that, before his swift removal from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and all other MCU projects, Gunn was working in close collaboration with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, discussing “what is the next iteration of cosmic characters and where are the characters that we’ve already created going to go in the next batch of films.”

Chances are Gunn held an advisory role on space-set films like Captain Marvel et. al, but after delivering two Guardians movies and assisting on Avengers: Infinity War, the director’s time working within the MCU is ostensibly over.

Now comes the million-dollar question: who will take James Gunn’s place? Taika Waititi and Karen Gillan have emerged as early contenders, but only time will tell.