Then, after right wing online personalities unearthed old offensive joke tweets from Gunn in response to his criticism of Donald Trump, Disney fired Gunn from third “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie.

2” sequel, also made a boatload of money. Released in 2014, the first “Guardians of the Galaxy” was critically acclaimed and embraced by fans as a refreshing change of pace for the sometimes samey-MCU, turning the characters into beloved A-list players and Gunn into one of the most respected directors in the Marvel Studios stable. In a nice synergy of director and subject, the film he signed onto was adapting a more obscure, wackier group of characters from Marvel Comics than seen before in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: the Guardians of the Galaxy, a squad of space traveling-heroes including a talking tree and a wisecracking raccoon. But instead of joining the DC team, he went to Marvel. Gunn’s career eventually lead him to making a big-budget comic book adaptation. When Gunn leapt into directing it was via the horror comedy “Slither” and the dark comic book parody “Super ” his other projects, like web series “James Gunn’s PG Porn” and the raunchy hack-and-slash video game “Lollipop Chainsaw,” demonstrated a similar subversive streak. Louis born filmmaker got his start in the ’90s as a screenwriter for Troma Entertainment, the low budget black comedy studio his first credit was as a writer for the iconically named Shakespeare retelling “Tromeo and Juliet.”Įarly on he demonstrated an interest in superheroics with the screenplay for future “Last of Us” showrunner Craig Mazin’s low-budget spoof on the genre, “The Specials,” and he made a venture into more mainstream fare with scripts for Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” and the “Scooby-Doo” films (though his initial script for that Hanna Barbara adaptation was much raunchier than the final result.) He’s all hands on deck for writing and directing the first film under his and Safran’s regime, “Superman: Legacy.” The forthcoming blockbuster - a reboot for the Superman franchise focusing on the early days of the Kyrptonian’s career - is set for release on June 11, 2025.Ĭonsidering Gunn’s career trajectory, it’s a rather surreal sight to see him get handed the keys to the DC kingdom. That’s a massive shift of Hollywood power players and a career boost for anyone, although Gunn evidently doesn’t plan to leave the director’s chair anytime soon. Discovery’s DC Studios in October 2022, with the objective of crafting a new strategy for films based on the company’s stable of comic book icons like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Along with his producing partner Peter Safran, Gunn was appointed to the co-CEO position at Warner Bros. It’s not everyday that a director becomes a CEO, but James Gunn has somehow become the dark avenger that DC needs.

Henry james the turning