Months after Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn was fired from the franchise following the resurfacing of controversial tweets by conservative pundits, the former Marvel scribe has secured a new gig for DC Entertainment.
According to Deadline, Gunn will write Suicide Squad 2, the next installment of the 2016 ensemble film that gives iconic villains from DC Comics the opportunity to save the world. Gunn is currently in talks to helm the feature, which director Gavin O'Connor was previously attached to.
Gunn is a big get for the Warner Bros.-owned DC, whose own superhero flicks are (often unfavorably) compared with those over at Disney's Marvel. Gunn's 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy and the film's 2017 sequel both have high Rotten Tomatoes scores (the first film is rated at 91% fresh, while the second is still at a more-than-respectable 83%) and legions of fans, many of whom were furious that the director was fired by Disney following his tweets, some of which are a decade old.
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The cast of Guardians of the Galaxy expressed their support for Gunn in an open letter after his firing, and Gunn himself has apologized for his inappropriate jokes multiple times over the years, including once in 2012 and again after Disney cut ties with the director.
Disney, however, has not altered their decision to end its relationship with Gunn, which turned out to be Warner Bros.' gain. According to Deadline, Warner Bros. swooped in with the Suicide Squad 2 offer when Gunn was settled out of Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3.
It makes sense for DC to want Gunn for this specific property. Like Suicide Squad, Guardians of the Galaxy is about a group of unlikely (and sometimes unwilling) heroes who must band together to fight forces greater than themselves. Deadline reports that Gunn has a new vision for the Suicide Squad property, so it's possible that the next Suicide Squad will be even closer in appearance to Guardians.
Refinery29 has reached out to Gunn for comment.