In a surprise move, Disney rehired James Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 - but why? Last summer, around the time of San Diego Comic-Con, a series of Gunn's old tweets resurfaced that contained messages about pedophilia and rape. Shortly thereafter, Walt Disney Studios chief Alan Horn fired Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It was understandably a shocking decision, one that was considered controversial despite what Gunn's tweets had said.

This decision was made without the input from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige nor Disney CEO Bob Iger, but both executives agreed with Horn's judgment. But just because Gunn was out as director, that didn't mean his influence wouldn't still be there. Later on, it was revealed that Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 script would still be used despite the director having been fired - though finding someone to replace him undoubtedly would've been the biggest hurdle. Thankfully, that's no longer the case.

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Disney has officially rehired James Gunn as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3's director, but many people may be wondering why (and when) they changed their minds. It turns out, after Horn and Gunn's initial meeting last year, they met several more times, and, according to Deadline, Horn was persuaded by Gunn's public apology as well as his handling of the entire situation - the firing and presumably not bad-talking Disney on social media - in order to rehire the director.

Furthermore, there has been no evidence that Gunn ever partook in the perverted things he talked about social media, which primarily came out of trying to establish himself while working with Troma Entertainment. In the end, Gunn accepted responsibility for his actions and carried that weight with him, never trying to defend himself. In fact, Gunn seemed to have stopped using social media altogether after news broke that he was fired. All of this went into Disney's decision to rehire Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. - a decision that must not have been easy to make.

What's interesting is that Horn's decision to rehire Gunn was apparently made several months ago; it just wasn't made public until now. In that span of time, Marvel must've been kept in the loop on at least some of the meetings seeing as they never met with another director for the role, and instead of trying to push it through production in order to meet a 2020 release date, Disney/Marvel ultimately put Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on indefinite hold. Now, it seems it'll release in the next few years, with Gunn back on board.

More: All The Damage Firing James Gunn Has Had For Marvel