Will James Gunn’s Firing Delay Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3?

Now that James Gunn has been given the boot from Disney, what does it mean for their Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 plans?

Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige said last month that Gunn had delivered the first draft of his script and that the pic would commence full production in early 2019 to target a May 2020 release date. With the creative mind behind it now not involved, though, all those plans may have to be reconsidered.

The situation raises all kinds of production problems, too. The cast of the movies has developed a close relationship with Gunn, with Dave Bautista breaking ranks to express his unhappiness with the way the director’s been treated. All of them are under contract to make the film, so it’s incredibly unlikely any of the principals will drop out, but if their grievances begin to build, it could result in negative buzz for the project.

There’s also the question of how much of Gunn’s script and ideas should be used. He’s been gradually developing character arcs and plotlines over the previous two movies that he intended to pay off in the second sequel. If they do decide to work from his draft, his name will have to appear on the film, and if Disney is serious about not working with him, that might be a step too far for them. If that’s the case and they need to start from the ground up, they’d better get working real fast on a fresh script in order to meet that January 2019 shooting date.

Given the studio’s record on projects like Solo: A Star Wars Story, I suspect they’ll still hit that May 2020 release slot. But I do worry about how the quality of the film will be impacted by Gunn’s departure. Let’s hope they get things on track very quickly – can anyone say Taiki Waititi?