‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Production on Temporary Hold
Production for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” has been put on a temporary hold, with Marvel and Disney dismissing the handful of crew members who had assembled in Los Angeles for pre-production.
Those crew members, numbering less than 20, have been told that they are free to look for other work, a source told Variety on Friday.
Disney and Marvel had no comment on the latest development, which comes a month after James Gunn was fired due to dozens of years-old tweets appearing to make light of pedophilia and rape coming to light. On Aug. 15, Variety reported that Disney and Marvel were standing strong on their decision not to re-hire Gunn for the third installment despite pressure from the “Guardians” cast, including Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana.
Gunn and his UTA reps had pushed hard for Disney to give him a second chance, and studio chairman Alan Horn took a meeting on Aug. 14, but Horn stood by his decision to not reinstate Gunn as director.
The film was expected to go into production at the start of 2019, but the project has never been dated for a release. Gunn’s original script is still expected to used for the next film.
The first two films, based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name, grossed a combined $1.6 billion worldwide in 2014 and 2017. News about the pre-production decision was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter.
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