Marvel Shared Film Universe: MCU Theatrical & TV (discussion, crossovers, etc.)

[LucasM]

Cloak & Dagger isn't completely terrible.  I was worried about the characters being in High School, but it still has a Marvel "Netflix" feel to it. Real slow paced at times, but somewhat interesting to see the origin story progress.  (I think Runaways was a little better)

I agree on Cloak & Dagger being watchable.  I find it to be roughly of the same caliber as Agents of SHIELD, but with more 'personal' stories for the time being (don't know where they'll go after the father/brother stories finish - if they do).  That means I'll continue watching as long as they want to keep making them of at least this quality.  Kinda' true of most Marvel product, it seems, as with most of them (with the exception of Inhumans), they've managed to make most of them interesting and involved enough - without feeling contrived - to keep my interest up.

[LucasM]

BREAKING: James Gunn No Longer Directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

In what might be the biggest blow to the MCU yet, James Gunn has been removed as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This decision comes right a controversy surrounding deleted tweets by the director that jokingly and disgustingly touched on pedophilia and rape. Gunn has since deleted his account. Walt Disney chairman Alan Horn had this to say on the firing of Gunn:

The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.

The entirety of the Guardians franchise was solely Gunn's vision. Guardians was the only MCU franchise whose DNA and essence were distilled purely from Gunn's own voice. Now out of the picture, there's no telling where the third film will end up or if the film will continue production on schedule. We have yet to hear from Gunn's immediate superiors at Marvel Studios so stay tuned here.

Unfortunately, unless he was already scheduled for a solo film of his own, this does not bode well for Adam Warlock's presence in the MCU.

Just to be clear: I think that joking about pedophilia and rape is unacceptable, particularly on social media.  So I don't fault Disney's zero tolerance, especially given the image they've cultivated for about 80-90 years now.

[The Lurker]

BREAKING: James Gunn No Longer Directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

In what might be the biggest blow to the MCU yet, James Gunn has been removed as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This decision comes right a controversy surrounding deleted tweets by the director that jokingly and disgustingly touched on pedophilia and rape. Gunn has since deleted his account. Walt Disney chairman Alan Horn had this to say on the firing of Gunn:

The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.

The entirety of the Guardians franchise was solely Gunn's vision. Guardians was the only MCU franchise whose DNA and essence were distilled purely from Gunn's own voice. Now out of the picture, there's no telling where the third film will end up or if the film will continue production on schedule. We have yet to hear from Gunn's immediate superiors at Marvel Studios so stay tuned here.

Unfortunately, unless he was already scheduled for a solo film of his own, this does not bode well for Adam Warlock's presence in the MCU.

Just to be clear: I think that joking about pedophilia and rape is unacceptable, particularly on social media.  So I don't fault Disney's zero tolerance, especially given the image they've cultivated for about 80-90 years now.

Yeah, but he also apologized for those comments 6 years ago.

[Edward J Grug III]

BREAKING: James Gunn No Longer Directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

In what might be the biggest blow to the MCU yet, James Gunn has been removed as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This decision comes right a controversy surrounding deleted tweets by the director that jokingly and disgustingly touched on pedophilia and rape. Gunn has since deleted his account. Walt Disney chairman Alan Horn had this to say on the firing of Gunn:

The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.

The entirety of the Guardians franchise was solely Gunn's vision. Guardians was the only MCU franchise whose DNA and essence were distilled purely from Gunn's own voice. Now out of the picture, there's no telling where the third film will end up or if the film will continue production on schedule. We have yet to hear from Gunn's immediate superiors at Marvel Studios so stay tuned here.

Unfortunately, unless he was already scheduled for a solo film of his own, this does not bode well for Adam Warlock's presence in the MCU.

Just to be clear: I think that joking about pedophilia and rape is unacceptable, particularly on social media.  So I don't fault Disney's zero tolerance, especially given the image they've cultivated for about 80-90 years now.

Yeah, but he also apologized for those comments 6 years ago.

He left them up, so if he DID apologise for them (and I've not seen anyone reporting that he has) then he's pretty dumb.

[The Lurker]

BREAKING: James Gunn No Longer Directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

In what might be the biggest blow to the MCU yet, James Gunn has been removed as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This decision comes right a controversy surrounding deleted tweets by the director that jokingly and disgustingly touched on pedophilia and rape. Gunn has since deleted his account. Walt Disney chairman Alan Horn had this to say on the firing of Gunn:

The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.

The entirety of the Guardians franchise was solely Gunn's vision. Guardians was the only MCU franchise whose DNA and essence were distilled purely from Gunn's own voice. Now out of the picture, there's no telling where the third film will end up or if the film will continue production on schedule. We have yet to hear from Gunn's immediate superiors at Marvel Studios so stay tuned here.

Unfortunately, unless he was already scheduled for a solo film of his own, this does not bode well for Adam Warlock's presence in the MCU.

Just to be clear: I think that joking about pedophilia and rape is unacceptable, particularly on social media.  So I don't fault Disney's zero tolerance, especially given the image they've cultivated for about 80-90 years now.

Yeah, but he also apologized for those comments 6 years ago.

He left them up, so if he DID apologise for them (and I've not seen anyone reporting that he has) then he's pretty dumb.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/guardians-galaxy-director-james-gunn-395796

[Edward J Grug III]

BREAKING: James Gunn No Longer Directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

In what might be the biggest blow to the MCU yet, James Gunn has been removed as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This decision comes right a controversy surrounding deleted tweets by the director that jokingly and disgustingly touched on pedophilia and rape. Gunn has since deleted his account. Walt Disney chairman Alan Horn had this to say on the firing of Gunn:

The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.

The entirety of the Guardians franchise was solely Gunn's vision. Guardians was the only MCU franchise whose DNA and essence were distilled purely from Gunn's own voice. Now out of the picture, there's no telling where the third film will end up or if the film will continue production on schedule. We have yet to hear from Gunn's immediate superiors at Marvel Studios so stay tuned here.

Unfortunately, unless he was already scheduled for a solo film of his own, this does not bode well for Adam Warlock's presence in the MCU.

Just to be clear: I think that joking about pedophilia and rape is unacceptable, particularly on social media.  So I don't fault Disney's zero tolerance, especially given the image they've cultivated for about 80-90 years now.

Yeah, but he also apologized for those comments 6 years ago.

He left them up, so if he DID apologise for them (and I've not seen anyone reporting that he has) then he's pretty dumb.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/guardians-galaxy-director-james-gunn-395796

That doesn't cover all of the pedophile and rape jokes. And these blog posts WERE taken down. I don't think you know what this news story is about?

Check the comments here for screenshots:

https://news.avclub.com/james-gunn-fired-from-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-o-1827757055

[The Lurker]

BREAKING: James Gunn No Longer Directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

In what might be the biggest blow to the MCU yet, James Gunn has been removed as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This decision comes right a controversy surrounding deleted tweets by the director that jokingly and disgustingly touched on pedophilia and rape. Gunn has since deleted his account. Walt Disney chairman Alan Horn had this to say on the firing of Gunn:

The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.

The entirety of the Guardians franchise was solely Gunn's vision. Guardians was the only MCU franchise whose DNA and essence were distilled purely from Gunn's own voice. Now out of the picture, there's no telling where the third film will end up or if the film will continue production on schedule. We have yet to hear from Gunn's immediate superiors at Marvel Studios so stay tuned here.

Unfortunately, unless he was already scheduled for a solo film of his own, this does not bode well for Adam Warlock's presence in the MCU.

Just to be clear: I think that joking about pedophilia and rape is unacceptable, particularly on social media.  So I don't fault Disney's zero tolerance, especially given the image they've cultivated for about 80-90 years now.

Yeah, but he also apologized for those comments 6 years ago.

He left them up, so if he DID apologise for them (and I've not seen anyone reporting that he has) then he's pretty dumb.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/guardians-galaxy-director-james-gunn-395796

That doesn't cover all of the pedophile and rape jokes. And these blog posts WERE taken down. I don't think you know what this news story is about?

Check the comments here for screenshots:

https://news.avclub.com/james-gunn-fired-from-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-o-1827757055

And in the link you provided there's an update and a continued apology.

[LucasM]

EDIT: Please note, the two posts above this were made while I was writing this.

Well, some new depth to the story on James Gunn.  It is a whole lot grayer than it initially seemed (though I am unlikely to think of most things as black and white, had he actually done the things he joked about instead of or in addition to joking about them, those would've been clear 'black and white's).

These are from this article: Processing The Firing of James Gunn From Marvel Studios.  There are 'endcap' paragraphs on that page that relate to the MCU proper and how it may/may not change from this.  I spoilered it just because it is a bit long.

Spoiler

Gunn's departure is a result of comments he made on Twitter nearly a decade ago being circulated by users who disagreed with his political stance.  It's important to note that Gunn initially made a name for himself by being offensive.  He explains this in his response to the controversy, but also mentions that he's since grown as a person:

Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo.  As I have discussed publicly many times, as I've developed as a person, so has my work and my humor.

While Disney certainly has every right to fire him, the situation is made even worse when we take into account the circumstances surrounding his termination.  Gunn's offensive tweets resurfaced because of political arguments he'd had and an agenda to discredit him.  Admittedly, his opponents didn't have to work very hard to find this publicly damning information.  Especially because Gunn has publicly apologized for it before.  But it's still coming from politically motivated individuals rather than a place of sincerity.

There is a place for edgy and dark humor, but there are also times when it crosses a line.  These jokes cross that line and it doesn't help that they're not funny.  It's essentially just shock humor with many jokes centered around pedophilia and rape.  This humor may work well in a closed group of friends, but Gunn made the unfortunate decision to share them with the world.  A lot of the jokes are also centered around him, which makes it look even worse.  Although it needs to be said that there haven't been any allegations claiming Gunn has physically or emotionally wronged anyone.

However, it's undeniable that his comments/jokes are pretty vile and he shouldn't have made them.  But it's pretty clear that he was a different person a decade ago and has since grown and matured along with his style of humor.  Throughout his Marvel career, Gunn has cultivated an honest back and forth with his fans and his responses felt genuine and from the heart.  On his Twitter prior to the firing, Gunn further explained the situation:

It's not to say I'm better, but I am very, very different than I was a few years ago; today I try to root my work in love and connection and less in anger. My days saying something just because it's shocking and trying to get a reaction are over.  In the past, I have apologized for humor of mine that hurt people. I truly felt sorry and meant every word of my apologies.

All of this puts Disney and Marvel in a very awkward position.  As previously mentioned, Gunn has been crucial to the development of the cosmic side of the MCU and been a great proponent of the genre.  But there's no way that Disney would continue to stand next to a man who publicly joked about having sex with children.  It's pretty clear that these were just jokes, but for perhaps the most family-friendly brand on the planet it doesn't matter.

And you may think that Disney is being hypocritical here.  And you'd be kinda right.  I'm sure they have connections to people who have said/done far worse things.  Robert Downy Jr. has a pretty dark history and wasn't always a family-friendly character.  But RDJ isn't in the news today joking about rape.  You'd be correct that Disney is only severing ties with Gunn because people are upset about what he said.  But is that really surprising?

A big topic of discussion lately has been what should the consequences be for stupid comments on social media?  In an ideal world, every punishment would adequately match the severity of the crime.  But we don't live in that world.  Disney's decision to part ways with Gunn is perfectly in line with their history and corporate goals.  And while it may be unfair to Gunn, who has made an effort to and succeeded in becoming a better person, it's ultimately Disney's decision to make.  And as unfortunate as it is, there's no reason for them to continue to stand next to someone who relied so heavily upon edgy shock humor.

Next paragraph is somewhat political in nature, so some may wish to avoid it.
This statement from the article, in particular, bothered me: "Gunn's offensive tweets resurfaced because of political arguments he'd had and an agenda to discredit him."  It bothered me because it means that Disney 'rewarded' political trolls who are - to my view at any rate - FAR more dangerous and damaging than Gunn's original comments, however offensive they may have been.  The 'personal smear campaigns' of - in particular - the (G!)OPpressive party here in the US, is incredibly dangerous for freedom as a whole.  If people are afraid to speak - at ANY time in their lives - and even say stupid things, then freedom itself will be very hard to sustain.  No-one goes through life without having carried a stupid opinion, or making a stupid sick or offensive joke, or whatever, at one time or another.  Those in power ALWAYS have more resources to destroy lives than individual people who rise up and call them on their bullshit do.  If people are afraid of that power, then we've already lost any liberties we may have had at one point.

[Edward J Grug III]

BREAKING: James Gunn No Longer Directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

In what might be the biggest blow to the MCU yet, James Gunn has been removed as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This decision comes right a controversy surrounding deleted tweets by the director that jokingly and disgustingly touched on pedophilia and rape. Gunn has since deleted his account. Walt Disney chairman Alan Horn had this to say on the firing of Gunn:

The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.

The entirety of the Guardians franchise was solely Gunn's vision. Guardians was the only MCU franchise whose DNA and essence were distilled purely from Gunn's own voice. Now out of the picture, there's no telling where the third film will end up or if the film will continue production on schedule. We have yet to hear from Gunn's immediate superiors at Marvel Studios so stay tuned here.

Unfortunately, unless he was already scheduled for a solo film of his own, this does not bode well for Adam Warlock's presence in the MCU.

Just to be clear: I think that joking about pedophilia and rape is unacceptable, particularly on social media.  So I don't fault Disney's zero tolerance, especially given the image they've cultivated for about 80-90 years now.

Yeah, but he also apologized for those comments 6 years ago.

He left them up, so if he DID apologise for them (and I've not seen anyone reporting that he has) then he's pretty dumb.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/guardians-galaxy-director-james-gunn-395796

That doesn't cover all of the pedophile and rape jokes. And these blog posts WERE taken down. I don't think you know what this news story is about?

Check the comments here for screenshots:

https://news.avclub.com/james-gunn-fired-from-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-o-1827757055

And in the link you provided there's an update and a continued apology.

I'm aware he has since apologised, he didn't apologise six years ago, which seems to be what you were saying?

[The Lurker]

BREAKING: James Gunn No Longer Directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

In what might be the biggest blow to the MCU yet, James Gunn has been removed as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This decision comes right a controversy surrounding deleted tweets by the director that jokingly and disgustingly touched on pedophilia and rape. Gunn has since deleted his account. Walt Disney chairman Alan Horn had this to say on the firing of Gunn:

The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.

The entirety of the Guardians franchise was solely Gunn's vision. Guardians was the only MCU franchise whose DNA and essence were distilled purely from Gunn's own voice. Now out of the picture, there's no telling where the third film will end up or if the film will continue production on schedule. We have yet to hear from Gunn's immediate superiors at Marvel Studios so stay tuned here.

Unfortunately, unless he was already scheduled for a solo film of his own, this does not bode well for Adam Warlock's presence in the MCU.

Just to be clear: I think that joking about pedophilia and rape is unacceptable, particularly on social media.  So I don't fault Disney's zero tolerance, especially given the image they've cultivated for about 80-90 years now.

Yeah, but he also apologized for those comments 6 years ago.

He left them up, so if he DID apologise for them (and I've not seen anyone reporting that he has) then he's pretty dumb.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/guardians-galaxy-director-james-gunn-395796

That doesn't cover all of the pedophile and rape jokes. And these blog posts WERE taken down. I don't think you know what this news story is about?

Check the comments here for screenshots:

https://news.avclub.com/james-gunn-fired-from-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-o-1827757055

And in the link you provided there's an update and a continued apology.

I'm aware he has since apologised, he didn't apologise six years ago, which seems to be what you were saying?

Did you check the date on article I linked to you, because it seems like he did apologize back then?

[Edward J Grug III]

BREAKING: James Gunn No Longer Directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

In what might be the biggest blow to the MCU yet, James Gunn has been removed as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. This decision comes right a controversy surrounding deleted tweets by the director that jokingly and disgustingly touched on pedophilia and rape. Gunn has since deleted his account. Walt Disney chairman Alan Horn had this to say on the firing of Gunn:

The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.

The entirety of the Guardians franchise was solely Gunn's vision. Guardians was the only MCU franchise whose DNA and essence were distilled purely from Gunn's own voice. Now out of the picture, there's no telling where the third film will end up or if the film will continue production on schedule. We have yet to hear from Gunn's immediate superiors at Marvel Studios so stay tuned here.

Unfortunately, unless he was already scheduled for a solo film of his own, this does not bode well for Adam Warlock's presence in the MCU.

Just to be clear: I think that joking about pedophilia and rape is unacceptable, particularly on social media.  So I don't fault Disney's zero tolerance, especially given the image they've cultivated for about 80-90 years now.

Yeah, but he also apologized for those comments 6 years ago.

He left them up, so if he DID apologise for them (and I've not seen anyone reporting that he has) then he's pretty dumb.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/guardians-galaxy-director-james-gunn-395796

That doesn't cover all of the pedophile and rape jokes. And these blog posts WERE taken down. I don't think you know what this news story is about?

Check the comments here for screenshots:

https://news.avclub.com/james-gunn-fired-from-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3-o-1827757055

And in the link you provided there's an update and a continued apology.

I'm aware he has since apologised, he didn't apologise six years ago, which seems to be what you were saying?

Did you check the date on article I linked to you, because it seems like he did apologize back then?

Just did, don't see anything?

[Edward J Grug III]

I'm on my phone and maybe missing it - in this article? https://mcuexchange.com/processing-james-gunn-firing/

[Edward J Grug III]

OK, if there's an apology from him from six years ago for these pedophile and rape jokes, someone please paste it rather than just saying it's in a link, because I can't see it.

I see a link to him apologising for some other shitty things he posted about LGBTQ people, which he also deleted. I see him addressing it very poorly before being fired, and then finally issuing a decent apology too late.

I see nothing of him addressing these 'jokes' that got him fired years ago though?

Further, he didn't get rid of these shitty things if he DID apologise for them. Which at best is stupid.

I really like the two GotG movies, and I really hate the guy that dug these up (who has said and done things in as awful), but Disney did the only logical thing here, and I find it pretty hard to feel sorry for Gunn.

[Pak-Man]

I dunno. It's not like he was working for Disney when he made the bad jokes. Looking at the timeline of his career vs. his tweets, he was in the middle of producing something called "James Gunn's PG Porn." He was clearly cultivating a very different image at the time. He broke free, he's been OK since. Disney must have known SOMETHING about his past when they signed him on for Guardians.

[LucasM]

I suspect that, as long as his old quotes remained buried, Disney was fine with him.  But when the people trying to wreck his career for the criminal act of disagreeing with their political position brought them to the attention of the media at large, Disney couldn't allow him to remain employed with them, given how it could potentially damage their brand.  [Seriously: Disney could not continue to employ someone where it was well known that he'd made jokes about having sex with children.  When only a few people knew, no big deal.]

I do agree that he should have deleted them.  However, how many of us remember everything we've written and/or have the time to search out and delete things we might - nearly ten years later - regret?