What Dave Bautista Says About James Gunn Losing Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3

Earlier today, the movie world was rocked by the news about James Gunn being removed from Marvel Studios' upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It was a hugely surprising move that seemingly came out of nowhere, and as a result there are hundreds of questions floating around. Ultimately it will take days, weeks, and months to get all of the answers, but on the subject of how Gunn's cast feels about the move, at the very least we now know Dave Bautista's thoughts on the matter:

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Most of the Guardians of the Galaxy castmembers have yet to make any public statement about the James Gunn firing (Pom Klementieff notably cancelled interviews at San Diego Comic-Con this afternoon), however Dave Bautista broke that silence earlier today with a post on his official Twitter page. It's a message of unwavering support for the filmmaker - at the same time recognizing that he is a flawed human being, like any of us - and is very direct with his opinion of the situation. In short, the man best known as Drax The Destroyer is definitely not happy that one of his favorite filmmakers has been fired from one of his upcoming projects.

Obviously we'll have to wait for more official comments to roll in from actors like Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, and Pom Klementieff, but it's hard to imagine any of them having opinions on James Gunn's firing that differ from what Dave Bautista had to say about the situation. Existing in its own special corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Guardians of the Galaxy created a special little family with the actors Gunn brought together, and many of the stars saw their careers completely change as a result of the project. Let's not forget that Bautista wasn't really taken seriously as an actor before taking on the role of Drax (something that has changed entirely), and before Star-Lord, Pratt was basically just known for being the chubby goofball on Parks and Recreation. In addition to making two wonderful movies that sing with his unique voice, Gunn legitimately changed lives with his comic book adaptations, and one can assume those individuals will eventually go to bat for him.

While it's unclear exactly what kind of impact the opinion of the actors will have on this whole situation, it is an extremely important factor in the future development of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. If the cast on the whole winds up being unilaterally supportive of James Gunn, that should make it extremely difficult for Disney and Marvel to try and find a filmmaker to replace him. Not only that, it's notable that Sean Gunn - James Gunn's brother - has a super important role in the franchise, not only playing the Ravager known as Kraglin, but doing the on-set motion capture work for Rocket Raccoon. There may be a serious behind-the-scenes conflict that erupts as a result of this situation, and there are going to be a lot of eyes on it between now and the movie's expected start of production at the start of next year.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 doesn't have an official release date yet, but it has been confirmed that the movie will come out some time in 2020. We will obviously continue to follow this story very closely, so stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for the latest updates.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.