Following James Gunn's dismissal from the Marvel Cinematic Universe over alleged rape and pedophile tweets, the production of Guardians of Galaxy Vol. 3 is officially on hold. It is still not clear when Disney will resume the production of Chris Pratt's starrer superhero action film.
There was a small group of crew members who had been preparing for the pre-production of Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, they had been dismissed and are told to explore new work options while Disney and Marvel will work on with the project.
Just like the earlier two films in the series, the third installment in Guardian of the Galaxy was set to have been helmed by James Gunn. The principal photography of the film was listed to begin in January 2019. Several crew members were on board with the project and few members were even gone into full pre-production mode.
But back in July 2018, several old tweets of James Gunn surfaced online. In his old tweets, he allegedly talked about rape and pedophile. According to Metro, his tweets read as, "I like when little boys touch me in my silly place."
Another tweet of James Gunn joked about rape, saying, "The best thing about being raped is when you're done being raped and it's like, 'whew this feels great, not being raped!"'
After his tweets surfaced online, Walt Disney Studios chairman released a statement stating that James' tweets are "indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's value."
After James Gunn was let go from the project, the cast and crew of Guardians of the Galaxy released an open letter. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Sean Gunn, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff and Michael Rooker all signed the letter in which they addressed the ongoing issues and even called the studio to reinstate James Gunn as the film's director.
As of now, the timeline of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is pushed out and it is still not clear when the production of the film will resume or who will reportedly be hired to direct the superhero film.
