James Gunn won’t be directing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, though that hasn’t stopped fans from spending money to rent a billboard near Disneyland in Garden Grove, California sharing their support of the director.
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A group of fans who organized online soon after Disney fired James Gunn as director of #GuardiansoftheGalaxy3 created a website, //t.co/jhfxrOLu0t, and paid a company $4,000 to run the digital billboard, which will be up through Nov. 25 //t.co/yIn0kZWBzx
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 30, 2018
The money for the billboard was raised on a GoFundMe page, which aimed to take in $12,000 to pay for billboards near multiple Disney parks, with the campaign currently sitting around $4,700.
Earlier this summer, Gunn was fired as the director of the film after a group of alt-right bloggers dug into his social media history and brought comments the filmmaker made about rape and pedophilia to the surface. Despite these comments being posted before Gunn was hired by Disney and having apologized for them previously, the controversy garnered too much attention to let Gunn keep his directing gig.
Even though most of the project’s contributors know a billboard won’t get the director rehired, backers still hope the signs remind Gunn of the support he has from Marvel fans.
“We really love Gunn as both a creator and the man we’ve seen him mature into,” Giuseppe Cincinnato, who helped orchestrate the project, shared with The Hollywood Reporter. “Even if this wasn’t going to cause Disney to see their mistake, we could at least show James Gunn how much support he has in his corner of the galaxy.”
Despite the Guardians of the Galaxy films being a labor of love for Gunn, he’s not sitting around and waiting for Disney to change their minds. Recent reports claim that the filmmaker is writing, and could potentially direct, Suicide Squad 2.
Cincinnato admitted, “If nothing comes of this, at least we met some amazing people and we did what’s right for James and showed how important he is for us.”
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was scheduled to hit theaters in 2020, though the numerous delays have resulted in reports that the project won’t debut until 2021. Marvel Studios will reportedly still use the script written by Gunn, yet hasn’t officially named what director will take over the project.
Stay tuned for details on the future of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Are you happy to see fans banding together to post the billboard? Let us know in the comments below!
[H/T The Hollywood Reporter]
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Images courtesy of Marvel Studios and DC Studios
