Disney Just Rehired James Gunn To Direct GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3

Here's a sentence I never expected to write: James Gunn is returning to direct Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3.

As you know, Gunn was unceremoniously fired from the film by Disney last year, following the discovery of many years-old tweet jokes covering a variety of unpleasant and taboo subjects. The effort to use those extremely ill-advised jokes in an online smear campaign against Gunn was spearheaded by a number of alt-right Twitter trolls, and film geekdom was shaken to its very core when that bad faith effort proved successful. Gunn apologized and took full ownership of the offensive tweets, but by that point the damage was done.

In the time since, Gunn has moved on to Warner Bros., where he's written (and will direct) a Suicide Squad reboot for the studio. Disney, meanwhile, has struggled to find someone interested in directing Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3, the production of which has been on hold while that search was underway. Despite repeated efforts by fans to get Disney to reverse their decision, the studio remained steadfast in its choice...until now.

So, what happened? Here's what Deadline's saying:

"Why the change of heart? After the firing, Walt Disney Studios president Alan Hornmet with Gunn on multiple occasions to discuss the situation. Persuaded by Gunn’s public apology and his handling of the situation after, Horn decided to reverse course and reinstate Gunn."

Deadline goes on to say that production on Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 will commence once Gunn has completed work on DC's The Suicide Squad. We're gonna be wiating on that one for a while, in other words, but seriously - who could complain? After very narrowly dodging the bullet of some other director finishing off the trilogy Gunn started, we're willing to wait however long it takes to see this thing through.

Celebrate along with us in the comments below.