David Pierdomenico
Fans of Marvel rejoiced as the news broke that Disney has indeed rehired James Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Last summer, Gunn’s firing sparked an outrage among fans and fueled a debate about how far we take condemnation in the court of public opinion. Now that Disney has withdrawn their original decision, we can step back and take a look at why an absurd situation like this was allowed to happen in the first place.
Outrage’s Short Attention Span
One of the most interesting (and ridiculous) aspects of social media is the incredibly short attention span it boasts. What’s trending one day will quickly be forgotten the next. And the very same thing goes for outrage over social media. As allegations or revelations about a person come out, society seems very quick to let it go soon after, particularly when their sins didn’t involve any actual actions.
Society will probably never forgive people like Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, or Louis C.K., because they committed terrible actions upon other people. But when it comes to someone making jokes like Gunn (especially when those jokes are years old), society is more willing to overlook it as it’s clear that people grow with time. Who else remembers Kevin Hart’s old jokes costing him the Oscar-hosting gig, but not affecting his film career at all?
Back when Gunn’s old offensive tweets were brought to light (which they already had been previously), Disney most likely feared this sort of outrage among society. Especially after they had recently fired Roseanne Barr for tweeting something offensive as well. To be fair, hers was very recent and Gunn’s was almost a decade old. It was a rare case of one issue affecting another, and Disney made a knee-jerk reaction that ultimately made fans angrier than if they had done nothing at all. And that’s the whole point. Among the few people who were calling for Gunn’s firing, most of them forgot about it a week later, and by now it will have absolutely zero effect on the box office performance of the third Guardians film.
Disney’s Display of Humility
We have to give props to Disney, as it would have been very easy for them to stick to their guns (no pun intended) and let the MCU suffer for their rash decision. They’ve demonstrated that they’re above this petty game of the court of public opinion. It’s been reported that the main reason Disney took him back was due to the sincerity of his apology, which demonstrated his growth and maturity as a person.
But no one would be surprised if behind closed doors, it was just an attempt to fix a mistake that was threatening to damage their relationship with fans, as well as ruin the next phase of the MCU. After all, it wasn’t just Guardians that Gunn was going to be involved in. Rumor had it that he would serve as a producer and de facto architect for all the Marvel based set in deep space.
In one of the most interesting turn of events, Gunn was courted by Warner Brothers and DC to directed Suicide Squad 2, which he will still do before going to work on Guardians 3. It’s no secret that the rivalry between the studios is quite intense, as Marvel bans their contracted actors from appearing in DC films during their Marvel tenure. But it appears they’re making an exception here and Gunn will be the only director to go from Marvel to DC, and then back to Marvel.
