During a 2019 interview with Deadline, shortly after it was announced that James Gunn would return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the director broke his silence on the matter to ensure that nobody pointed a finger at the studio. Gunn insisted that he didn’t blame anyone other than himself for the termination. By his own admission, the comments for which he was initially fired fell within a reasonable window for official action. With that framework in mind, Gunn likened his attitude toward Marvel to his attitude toward his ex-wife.
“I would hate to look back on the six years that my wife and I were together and think, ‘Oh, what a waste of time.’ Instead, I think it was a time when I really grew a lot and we were really good to each other,” said Gunn. “I wanted to feel that way about Disney. I didn’t want to look back and feel bitter, upset, or angry … I just wanted to be comfortable saying goodbye and splitting up, and that’s where my head was at, even in the very early meeting we had, a week or two weeks after it all happened.”
Gunn’s statement, and others like it, don’t preclude the possibility of more stressors affecting him behind closed doors. That said, he’s notably forthcoming with information on social media when fans ask for it, and his information is typically accurate, so it’s reasonable to take him at his word when he says that Marvel did not make writing “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” more difficult. Sometimes, it really is just about the art, and sometimes the art is hard. Maybe Gunn will have an easier time with “Superman: Legacy”?
