Ever since the knee-jerk firing of James Gunn back in July, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been sat waiting with baited breath to see what the future had in store for the planned Guardians Of The Galaxy 3 movie. With pre-production having already started at the point of Gunn’s exit, the movie was temporarily shelved, but this week some new detail has now come to light in relation to the project.
Filming for GOTG3 had initially been planned to start next year, to cater for a subsequent cinematic outing at some point in 2020. According to Production Weekly, this has now been pushed back to February 2021, for a planned release in late 2022. This does seem a realistic time period, in order to give Marvel the space they badly need in the wake of Gunn’s departure to find a suitable replacement for him.
Though this was also posted about the report:
Production Weekly just makes things up FYI. They posted a fake Black Widow synopsis.
— Jeremy Conrad (@ManaByte) October 18, 2018
It’s been confirmed that the movie already had a completed script, which had been written by Gunn to cater for the events of the first two movies, as well as those of Infinity War and Avengers 4. It remains to be seen if Marvel will stick with this document, having to weigh up its suitability with the desire to cut ties with Gunn altogether.
Keeping this script would undoubtedly be the way forward, given Gunn’s close ties to the franchise, but finding someone able to replicate his style could prove too much of a challenge. One rumored scenario could see writer/director David Ayer coming across to the MCU, with Gunn having crossed the street to replace him on Suicide Squad 2.
Another piece of information released in the piece by Production Weekly is the movie’s working title, which they have reported as “Hot Christmas”. Whether this means the film will feature some form of festive element remains to be seen, as the working titles given to blockbuster movies tend to have a personal meaning to the film-makers, rather than any links to the script itself.
It’s rumored that Marvel are keen for a female director to replace the disgraced Gunn, partly to be seen to counter the sexist and misogynistic comments he was fired for, but also to reflect the growing demand in the industry for female directors as a result of the #MeToo movement. It’s also believed both Jon Favreau and Taiko Waititi have refused to take over the movie, despite online fan campaigns for them to be given the job.