End of Disc One, on 31 July 2018 - 01:44 PM, said:
Who made the decision to fire Gunn? For some reason I doubt the higher ups at Disney or Marvel are right wing. I wish this wasn't a political issue either.
It would have had to come down from Disney CEO Bob Iger, via pressure on Feige (Marvel head). It's Iger and the shareholders who stand to lose out if the Fox merger deal is Kiboshed by the Trump Administration out of spite, so they are dancing to Trump (and the "right's") tune until that merger is finalized and passed through. This is especially true since Iger has pissed off Trump at a few intervals over the last year...so he's walking in eggshells.
I highly doubt that anyone else, Feige included, would be AS on the ball as Iger would be about such a merger.
All that said, when the Merger is finalized and is OUT of the Trump Administrations hands as far as stymying it...I could THEN see Iger and Fiege and co re-hiring Gunn.
The GOTG movies and characters are a CASH cow under the MCU...and GOTG is tied into Gunn's DNA...and if the cast supports him to this level (at the possible cost of their own careers and livelihoods), they could choose to phone it in for another director on GOTG3...(I'm assuming they are all under contract to reprise), or even more extreme break contract and pay the penalties (something as mostly big stars with other film careers, they COULD feasibly do). Aside from ANY of that...Disney MCU need to take into account the audience. How many people would be much more inclined to patriate a GOTG movie with Gunn at the helm rather than someone else? I can't say that I would go see a non-Gunn helmed/written GOTG movie...but I can guarantee you I'd be there opening day if he did end up rehired and doing it. That's a big gamble for them to figure out in the back of all this.
EDIT to add: Consider also the more sweeping connotations of this decision and what it was made on the back of. A racist, sexist, Alt-right rapist D-bag...dredged up tweets Disney ALREADY knew about years ago...and showed them to the court of public opinion...all to get Gunn (An anti-Trump guy) fired....and Disney balked and did so. Now imagine that you are Chadwick Boseman, lead of the MCU's newest HUGE success character...and the company you ostensibly work for gave in to the caustic whims of a racist alt-right asshole troll...how good would you feel about your employers?
I'll say this now...Disney buckling to Cernovich and his asshole friends and supporters...is the tip of the iceberg and is REALLY going to affect the MCU going forward in unforeseen ways from a business standpoint. If the alt-right can hold a corporation like Disney's feet to the fire and they capitulate...how many of the more liberal leaning producers, directors, cast members crew members...will choose to change venue?
Sidebar: I found out today that Chris Evans (Captain America himself) calls Trump "Biff"...in what I assume is a clever reference to BTTF2's Biff Tannen in charge of the darkest timeline. Amazing. Did I mention I love Chris Evans?
This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 31 July 2018 - 02:46 PM
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