What James Gunn Learned From Being Fired By Marvel

In a recent interview, Suicide Squad director James Gunn has opened up to The New York Times about--among many other things--the 2018 Twitter controversy that got him temporarily fired from Marvel. The article comes in advance of the upcoming Suicide Squad movie, which is finally due in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6.

As The New York Time article recounts, Gunn discovered one day in July 2018 that he was trending on Twitter--and not for good reasons. Internet sleuths had surfaced a series of tweets from The Guardian of the Galaxy filmmaker, which included several deliberately crude and offensive jokes or comments about a number of sensitive topics including the Holocaust, 9/11, AIDS, pedophlia, and rape. But, Gunn says, it was not immediately clear whether there would be repercussions for these tweets coming to light.

"I called Kevin [Feige, Marvel Studios president] the morning it was going on, and I said, 'Is this a big deal?'" said Gunn. "He goes, 'I don't know.' That was a moment. I was like, 'You don't know?'"

Gunn said he eventually got a call from Feige "in shock" with more definitive news and "it seemed like everything was gone… I was never going to be able to work again. That's what it felt like." The interview explores his path back and lessons learned from those experiences--including some thoughts on how he tries to hold himself much more accountable. He also discusses being only the second director to work on both a DC and Marvel movie--and hints that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (releasing May 2023) is likely to be his last superhero movie for at least a while. It's well worth a read in full.