Zoe Saldana Comments on James Gunn’s Return for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’

Last year, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had to deal with a major setback when Disney fired James Gunn, the writer and director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, effectively delaying that film’s release. Many people involved with the film protested Gunn’s firing, writing letters and issuing statements in support of their director.

Now that Gunn has returned to direct the next entry in the franchise, those same stars are starting to speak out in support of the filmmaker. Zoe Saldana, who has played Gamora in the Guardians and Avengers movies, spoke to Entertainment Tonight while she was promoting Missing Link during a recent press event.

“I’m proud of him. I’m happy that he’s coming back,” Saldana said about Gunn’s return. “I’m so proud of Disney, actually, that all the leaders right now behind that big corporation decided to lead by example, and spreading the word and the message of redemption is important.”

Gunn was fired from Marvel shortly after it was revealed that he was going to be the shepherd for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — specifically the direction of their cosmic corner of the universe.

But after Gunn was initially fired, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said that role was “blown out of proportion.”

“His influence was Guardians. It was Guardians,” Feige previously said to CinemaBlend. “It was his input on Guardians and the Avengers films, as you’ve seen in Infinity War, and on the Guardians 3 script, which we’re still using. So you’ll see that influence. I think online, sort of the notion of ‘architect across multiple cosmic things’ was slightly blown out of proportion.”

When Gunn was asked about it, he explained that his duties weren’t more expansive than how he originally approached making Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

“It’s already a part of what I’m doing with Marvel and the conversations that Kevin and I have every day. When we’re talking about Guardians of the Galaxy 3, and that story, that’s a story that will lead to other stories,” Gunn said. “It’s innate to the DNA that that’s the end of a trilogy but it’s the beginning of a whole other element of the Marvel Cosmic universe. That’s a part of what I’m doing now.”

Gunn is currently set as the executive producer of Avengers: Endgame, premiering in theaters on April 26th.

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