America, We Need to Talk… About Disney’s Re-Hiring of James Gunn

Really, it’s no secret at all that in Hollywood, profits will trump ethics almost every single time.  So, when a scandal occurs involving one celebrity or another, you can assume that how a studio responds to that scandal will be more dependent upon how much capital that celebrity generates than upon some moral decision, which is problematic for a number of reasons.  There are writers, directors, producers, and actors who are thriving in Tinseltown despite being involved in some very shady goings-on.  Others find their careers ended due to mere associations and rumours.  Then there are those who are cut off from the entertainment community with good reason.  Just this week Allison Mack, a leading actor from the hit WB/CW series Smallville, confessed to being involved with a sex cult/human trafficking group.  This comes after the recent sex scandals surrounding Bryan Singer, Kevin Spacey, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby, and Harvey Weinstein.  (Hollywood clearly has a real problem with sexual exploitation and abuse that needs to be addressed.)  In almost all of these cases, the exception being Jackson, the people caught up in these scandals have had their careers virtually wiped out by their misdeeds.  And rightfully so.  But in all of these instances, the people involved had multiple accusations of actual abuse made against them, and that is simply not always the case.  So, what is the right course of discipline for people who may have overstepped the boundaries of propriety, of what is currently socially acceptable, but have not outright harmed anyone beyond the initial controversy of their words and actions?  These are important questions in an ongoing discussion about freedom of speech and accountability in the free market world of American entertainment.

Marvel Studios’ 2018 banner celebrating the first ten years of the studio’s successes. Of the 29 characters on the banner, which represents 19 films released over a decade, 7 of them are from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise. This emphasizes that not only are the Guardians characters popular, but they are also highly profitable, and thus integral to the MCU.

Enter Walt Disney Pictures…  and Marvel Studios.  When Disney bought Marvel back in 2009, around a year after the launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it was supposed early on that the family-friendly corporation might hold the reins to the comic book company a little too tightly.  There were fears that they might even censor the more adult content of earlier comics and comic book-inspired films.  So far, that has not been the case, and it’s largely been a pleasant surprise for fans.  The MCU films have been a huge success.  By “a huge success”, I mean a titanic, phenomenal, cosmic success.  Since 2008, the MCU raked in a massive total of $19 billion, which is astonishing by any metric.  No film franchise has come close to this level of financial success within a ten year period.  It’s unprecedented.  The films are making so much money that it puts Disney in an interesting and somewhat dualistic position.  On the one hand, that level of success means that these films are highly visible, that there’s a built-in audience, and that they will pull a massive profit no matter what, and so there’s a certain freedom there to take risks and hire filmmakers to helm franchises that may not be immediately obvious.  Or even safe choices.  On the other hand, it also means that they may be overprotective of their investments, of what projects go forward, and how to ensure that those projects match up with the lucrative business of their previous films, which means that studio interference and control could be a potential problem.  Either way it’s a lot of pressure for a studio president or executive to deal with.

So, what happens when a filmmaker, or even an actor, does something that doesn’t line up with the almighty studio’s plan, either in their personal life or in the process of making a film for Marvel?  Well, the MCU‘s success might be unprecedented, but shakeups behind the scenes are not, and this is evident in who has been let go in those ten years.  One might forget that both Disney and Marvel have a history of severing ties with talent when they feel that the studios’ overall vision doesn’t line up with the individual’s.  Iron Man star Terence Howard‘s character James Rhodes/War Machine was recast with Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2.  The original director of Ant-Man, Edgar Wright, was let go and replaced by Peyton Reed, who wound up directing both that film and its sequel.  In the former situation, the actor was reportedly difficult to work with and made too many demands, and in the latter situation, the director’s creative vision didn’t align with that of the studio, so they were let go.  But then there’s James Gunn.  Gunn was apparently a charm to work with and he has been highly regarded by his cast and crew.  Gunn’s vision for the Guardians of the Galaxy not only aligned with the studio’s vision, it surpassed it and enhanced it, and creatively he was responsible for two of Marvel‘s biggest hits.  Marvel Studios‘ president Kevin Feige made it no secret that Gunn would be heavily involved with the future of the MCU, helping to spearhead it’s forward momentum and trajectory, much in the same way that Joss Whedon and brothers, Anthony Russo and Joe Russo have.  When Gunn was fired last Summer for some highly inappropriate tweets from almost a decade ago, it sent shock waves through the industry, not least of all because professionally he had done nothing wrong.

The teaser poster for the 2014 film “Guardians of the Galaxy”.

James Gunn brought so much to the tone, aesthetics, and scope of that first Guardians of the Galaxy film.  It would be hard to imagine anyone else stepping into that corner of the sandbox and creating anything comparable with what are essentially his toys.  After his firing, the principal cast sent an open letter to the studio, respectfully asking that the studio let Gunn return as director.  Tens of thousands of fans signed petitions.  However, it looked unlikely that the director would be returning for the third (and final?) installment in the GotG trilogy.  The one bright light in this whole dark drama was that Gunn’s recently completed screenplay for the film would still be used.  For a while rumours circulated online of possible replacement directors who could step in to replace Gunn.  At the top of the list were Nicole Pearlman and Taika Waititi.  Nicole Pearlman was the original writer on the first Guardians of the Galaxy film before it was rewritten by James Gunn.  The other choice, and the one that most fans seemed to flock to, was Thor:  Ragnarok director Taika Waititi.  In response to these rumours, Waititi made a statement, saying, “For me, those are James’ films.  Going into something like that with his stamp all over his films, would be like going into someone’s house and saying ‘Hey, I’m your new dad, and this is how we make peanut butter sandwiches now.  It feels kind of awkward.  However, I’m still hanging out with those guys [at Marvel] and talking about new stuff.  I want to do another movie with them.”  Apparently Disney and Marvel ultimately agreed, because now Gunn has been reinstated as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but what does that say about the ethics of the companies?

That question isn’t easy to answer.  If I had to sum it up, I would say that the bottom line is profit, and perhaps if there were two bottom lines, just above that would be prestige.  Almost all decisions in Hollywood are determined by how much of a profit you can pull in and how much prestige your work can acquire in terms of critical appraisal and awards.  Because of that, studios and the talents hired by them are often placed above certain moral expectations, and this is why Hollywood is often criticized for its lack of morality.  The problem is that generalization really only applies to a select few people who have been highly visible due to the scandals that they’ve been involved.  Hollywood scandals aren’t always, or even often, based upon a genuine interest in ethics.  Many times scandals are concocted in order to bring down talented people.  The motivations vary and range from professional jealousy to sexism and racism, from resentment over contracts to creative disputes, from personal grudges to political retaliation.  And these Hollywood scandals are in no way new.  They are just more widespread and quickly disseminated in the digital age.

When the silent film era was at its strongest in the late 1910s and into the early 1920s, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was falsely accused of raping Virginia Rappe.  One of Rappe’s friends spread rumours about him raping her with an icicle and that her death was the result of Arbuckle’s weight on top of her.  The doctor performing the autopsy denied there being any truth to these claims.  Numerous witnesses countered the claims with their version of events where Arbuckle applied ice to her stomach while she was in pain. We know now that Rappe was suffering from medical complications arising from her alcohol consumption and peritonitis and that Arbuckle was trying to help her.  The blatant lies that Rappe told were planned in an attempt extort money from Arbuckle.  It ruined his career.  Clara Bow also suffered similar treatment by the press.  They were all fabricated for the sake of ruining her career.  Some things don’t change.

Posted on June 25, 2018, the cover page of James Gunn’s screenplay for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”, which he called, “Every bit of my heart.”

Disney and Marvel came under a lot of fire when they severed ties with Gunn.  This was because they knew about Gunn’s controversial tweets before they hired and then only fired him after they became well-known.  That did nothing to give them any claims of taking the moral higher ground.  Now they are receiving criticism from some people, most notable among them conservative actor James Woods, for having hired Gunn back.  In my last write-up on this issue, I pointed out that Gunn probably should never have been hired based on his earlier social media presence and Disney‘s self-proclaimed values system, but given that the studios knew about his past and what he had said, firing him after the fact to save face was just hypocritical and facile.  Now it appears all the more so since they have hired him back after Gunn’s six-month absence on social media.  Interestingly, it’s been suggested by a number of sources that Marvel never really considered any other directors to replace Gunn, which may indicate that his firing to begin with was just a PR move.  Whether it was always intended that he direct the film, even in the face of the backlash, it’s hard to say because the decision process has not been very transparent.  What we do know is that James Gunn virtually disappeared from social media, ceasing to post on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, until March 15, 2019.  Then on that day, he posted a statement, one which sent fans into a frenzy, announcing that the decision had been reversed and that he would indeed be returning to direct the third GotG film.

America, We Need to Talk… About Disney’s Firing of James Gunn

It should be clear that there is indeed something wrong with our society when people make jokes about other people suffering the trauma of abuse and assault.  That much should really be common sense.  As of yesterday, July 20, 2018, acclaimed film director James Gunn was fired by Disney and Marvel Studios for a series of extremely controversial and offensive posts he made on social media back in 2007 and 2008.  The director of such films as Slither, Super, and Marvel‘s Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has been known for his outlandish and innovative take on genre films, diving deep into horror, superheroes, and science fiction and fantasy films, subverting expectations, imbuing them with irreverent humour, and making otherwise obnoxious characters lovable.  But now he may find himself a rogue in Hollywood after a conservative political commentator dug up posts he made from over ten years ago and exposed a dark side to the much-loved director’s past and personality.  The firing of Gunn brings up a number of questions about accountability, about hypocrisy, about political correctness, about free speech, about the free market, about separating the artist and their art, and about the future of the highly successful Marvel Studios brand’s future.

The Marvel Studios logo as it appeared in 2008 during the inception of the MCU and Phase One.

To start things off, Marvel was purchased by Disney in 2009, about a year after the launch of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with the 2008 films, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk.  These two films introduced a way of re-branding both Disney and Marvel, of sharing intellectual property between companies, and of creating a super-franchise comprised of smaller franchises revolving around popular characters and groups of characters.  It was the birth of the cinematic universe, where characters from one franchise crossover with characters from another, and each cinematic installment builds upon the last and lays the foundation for the next.  From a storytelling perspective, it was the film medium borrowing from the unique qualities of serialized narratives as found in comic books and graphic novels, and from a corporate perspective, it was a studio tapping into synergy in a way that had never been done before (or since really).  However, creatively, aside from that first Iron Man film, most of the early MCU films failed to recapture the fun, intelligence, action, and character dynamism that made the comic books so special.  Until The Avengers was released in 2012, that is, and changed everything.  Since then, Marvel has exploded into one of the most innovative of studios, both creatively and commercially, making literally billions of dollars every year in ticket sales, home video releases, merchandising, and licensing deals.

This largely has to do with how it has taken lesser known characters, allowed lesser known genre and independent filmmakers who were passionate about them, reinvent them on screen.  Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man in 2008 and Iron Man 2 in 2010, and Joss Whedon, who directed The Avengers in 2012 and Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, were the creative spearheads behind most of the films that comprised Phase One and Phase Two of the MCU.  But fans started to show some signs of superhero fatigue and critically a number of entries in the various franchises didn’t quite live up to the massive storm cloud of hype that grew around them.  There were among these truly epic franchises a number of films that were consider by comic book fans, film critics, and industry economists, to have missed their mark.  There were also films that surpassed expectations and radically altered not only the way these superhero films were being written, directed, and marketed, but also the creative direction that the whole MCU was moving in.  Phase Two, overall, while relatively successful commercially, felt formulaic, predictable, and bland.  Both Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Age of Ultron felt underwhelming and failed to live up to many fans’ expectations of how hugely iconic characters would be treated.  But in 2014, two films, one a sequel and one an origin story, shot the MCU to the very height of comic book movie adaptations.

The theatrical poster for the 2014 sequel “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, directed by brothers Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, took the Captain America character back to the basics, telling a nuanced, thrilling, and more grounded story than its predecessor Captain America: The First Avenger had.  Creating a palpable amount of suspense, introducing a deeper level of political commentary, more meaningful character development, and a touch of the techno-thriller, the film had more in common with the first Iron Man film, and was the first truly great sequel of the MCU.  While other sequels, such as Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, and Thor: The Dark World, had done reasonably well with critics and in terms of box office, The Winter Soldier captured the spirit of the characters and the comics while adapting them faithfully on-screen, embodying the potential of what superheroes could be on screen and what they could represent to a real world of moviegoers.  The film raised the bar and set a new standard for sequels and made the “least favourite Avenger” the coolest, most honourable, and most relatable member of the superhero team.  Cap was officially cool again.

While the Russos redefined what a Marvel sequel could and should be, James Gunn came onto the scene with Guardians of the Galaxy, a bizarre and unexpected film that combined buddy comedy film, heist film, science fiction film, fantasy film, and adventure film tropes into a truly revolutionary concoction that proved to be box office gold.  The film was hailed by critics and audiences alike for its snappy dialogue, its beautifully colourful special effects, for its mixture of genres, and for its array of roguish and lovable characters.  It was at once the MCU‘s greatest risk and biggest success.  The film took a second-rate, maybe even third-rate, group of characters that almost no one was familiar with outside the most diehard of comic book fans, and elevated them to a-level star status, making both the cast and the characters themselves, an integral part of the MCU.  This was in part due to casting against convention, hiring the chubby and charming Chris Pratt from the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation to be the handsome, muscle-bound, morally ambiguous, bed-hopping, smart-ass thief, Peter Quill, known as Star-Lord.  Joining Pratt was Zoe Saldana as the green-skinned assassin, Gamora, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel as a mercenary raccoon and walking, talking tree, Rocket and Groot respectively, and Dave Bautista as Drax, a vengeance obsessed hulk of tattooed muscle.  The stars seemed as unlikely as the concept.  Guardians of the Galaxy became one of the highest grossing films of its year and turned the direction of the MCU away from the standard superhero fare and aimed its sight to the cosmos.  Science fiction and fantasy would be the underlying genres of the MCU‘s most creative period, Phase Three.

The theatrical poster for the 2014 film “Guardians of the Galaxy”.

Aside from the brilliant performances from the cast, and the dazzling display of special effects, most of the credit for the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy went to the writer-director, James Gunn, whose visionary direction and witty dialogue turned the world of science-fantasy on its head in the best way possible.  Having directed the gruesome horror comedy Slither in 2006, and the satirical vigilante film Super in 2010, his previous films had shown that Gunn was edgy and talented, and that his dark and nihilistic sense of humour would lend themselves well to genre films.

The theatrical poster for the 2016 sequel “Captain America: Civil War”.

Subsequently, the Russos directed Captain America: Civil War in 2016, which not only saw divisions drawn among the Avengers, Iron Man and Captain America, leading to an all-out war, but also introduced both Spider-Man and the Black Panther to the MCU, expanding their superhero mythology.  They followed that up with the third Avengers film, Avengers: Infinity War in 2018, which saw all of the major characters in the MCU unite together to face the cosmic threat of Thanos, whose presence had been growing since the very first Avengers film eight years earlier, and was the first culminating chapter of the MCU begun ten years earlier.

The theatrical poster for the 2018 sequel “Avengers: Infinity War”.

Gunn would then go onto direct the 2017 sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and expand the cosmic mythology as well as reaffirm the Guardians characters as the iconic and irreverent upstarts in Marvel‘s pantheon.  Along with the Russos, Gunn would become one of the most important creative voices behind the MCU, just under Kevin Feige, producer and president of Marvel Studios.  The Russos would oversee Captain America and the Avengers in their next two films, and would help to steer the direction of the superhero characters, and Gunn would set the tone and visual style for the science fiction and fantasy worlds.  It was a perfect formula for unprecedented success.

The theatrical poster for the 2017 sequel “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”.

The MCU was moving in leaps and bounds.  With each new franchise introduced, the sky seemed to be the limit, the creativity seemed to grow, the box office set new records, and fans rejoiced.  The Russos with their Captain America and Avengers films, Gunn with the Guardians, Scott Derrickson with Doctor Strange released in 2016, Taika Waititi with Thor: Ragnarok released in 2017, Ryan Coogler with Black Panther released in 2018.  Each new film introduced a host of new characters, new ideas, new themes, new narratives, and the possibility for countless new adventures.

On June 25, 2018, James Gunn posted across his social media platforms the cover page for his screenplay of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which was due out in 2020, and described it as “Every bit of my heart.“

Posted on June 25, 2018, the cover page of James Gunn’s screenplay for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”, which he called, “Every bit of my heart.”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was thriving and bringing new writers and directors from independent filmmaking in with each new installment, reintroducing and reinventing characters, redefining genres, and reinvigorating Hollywood.  They seemed to be moving at full momentum, unstoppable, unsinkable, and untouchable.  Everything seemed to be going according to plan.

Or so we all thought…