The star-studded purple carpet at last night's premiere of Avengers: Endgame was missing a familiar face: Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn. The filmmaker, who was fired from Disney last July due to controversial tweets that resurfaced years after their posting, was then rehired by the Mouse House in March of this year. He will be finishing out the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, but not until he's finished working on his upcoming DC project, The Suicide Squad.

After Gunn's firing, Warner Bros. and DC were quick to nab the filmmaker to tackle the next Suicide Squad movie, which is aiming for a release in 2021. This means that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 won't be hitting theaters until some time after that. DC producer Peter Safran has also stated that Gunn won't be rushing Suicide Squad for the sake of Guardians, a decision that both studios seemed to agree upon in regard to their respective projects. As of right now, The Suicide Squad is currently in pre-production and will begin shooting sometime this fall.

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Gunn's rehiring is one that overjoyed fans and friends of the filmmaker, especially those that had all signed a petition online for him, so his absence on the Endgame carpet puzzled plenty of onlookers. His brother, Sean Gunn, stopped to talk with senior staff writer for THR, Ryan Parker, on the carpet about his absence. He stated that his brother is currently busy with other work, but, "his thoughts are here." The statement is a fairly obvious one that points directly to The Suicide Squad. Since pre-production is already in full swing, it would make sense that the filmmaker is stuck in the thick of it.

The Avengers: Endgame premiere could have been a perfect homecoming for the director, but it was surely one that he was missing out on attending as well. The filmmaker was overjoyed to be back with his Marvel family, as evident from a heartfelt statement that he released after news of his rehiring broke on the internet. Even friends of the filmmaker rejoiced in seeing his return, including Gamora herself, Zoe Saldana. Another friend and star of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, Chris Pratt, excitedly shared that the film will be using Gunn's original script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.  3 as well, so it's apparent that the love between Gunn and Marvel still holds strong and true.

Seeing the positive turnaround for James Gunn has been an exciting one. His rehiring with Disney was one that was well-deserved, especially after the filmmaker took to social media and apologized numerous times for the tweets. With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 now arriving at a much later date then anticipated, it'll be interesting to see how Marvel adjusts their cinematic timeline. Many people have already been puzzled by the consistency in the studio's current phase, especially with making the decision to end Phase 3 on Spider-Man: Far From Home instead of the final Avengers film, but hopefully Gunn will find a way to carry out the Guardians' trilogy-ender with a bang.

Next: Fixing Marvel Phase 3's Broken Release Schedule

Source: Ryan Parker