As fans wait to find out who will take the helm of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the script by ousted writer-director James Gunn has reportedly made readers cry. It’s been nearly five months since James Gunn was fired by Disney, after insensitive jokes from several years ago resurfaced, and the studio still hasn’t announced his successor. While there is hope by many fans that the studio will, at the very least, use Gunn’s script, that isn’t known for sure either, nor is its previously confirmed status as a Marvel Phase 4 movie.

Marvel has become well known for its unconventional choices in their directors, which have all seemed to work out just fine for the studio. Before he brought this ragtag group of intergalactic heroes to the big screen, Gunn directed quirky indie fare (Slither, Super), wrote movies like the Dawn of the Dead remake and Scooby-Doo, and cut his teeth at Troma with low-budget fare like Tromeo & Juliet and Terror Firmer. The filmmaker has certainly come a long way from those humble roots, and while he’s moving on to Suicide Squad 2 for the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), the fate of Guardians 3 is still uncertain, for now.

As for Gunn’s Guardians 3 script, SlashFilm’s Peter Sciretta took to Twitter this week, revealing that “two separate people” managed to read the script, with both telling him, “that it made them cry.” Sciretta wouldn’t divulge any more, including the identities of the two people he knew who read the script, although he dismissed a fan’s claim that, “James and Sean don’t count,” referring to the director’s brother and Guardians’ mainstay Sean Gunn, who plays Kraglin. Sciretta also responded to another fan who said he hopes Marvel uses Gunn’s script, by saying, “Me too.”

Sean Gunn did reveal in September that Disney and Marvel do plan on using James Gunn’s Guardians 3 script, though another report in August claimed the studio will allow whoever takes the reins in Gunn’s stead to make adjustments as they see fit. There was also a rumor last month that Bumblebee director Travis Knight was being eyed to replace Gunn, but he shot down that report just a few weeks later. All of the main cast members have spoken out against Gunn’s firing, and while it looked for a period of time that Disney was considering bringing him back, the director is not returning, and now all fans can do is wait to see what Marvel’s next move may be.

A report surfaced in October that Guardians 3 won’t start production until 2021, which might not be a good sign for those who want to see Gunn’s script being used. If Marvel truly did plan to use Gunn’s script, or at least the lion’s share of it, they probably wouldn’t need two full years simply to find a new director, especially since all of the main cast members are in place. Filming was originally scheduled to begin in February 2019, so it seems likely that, if filming doesn’t start for two more years, that time will be spent overhauling the script by whoever comes aboard to direct. While we still have a long way until whatever version of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 hits theaters, it may be a much different version than Gunn intended to bring to the screen.

More: Every Phase 4 MCU Movie In Development

Source: Peter Sciretta/Twitter

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