Following the surprise rehiring of James Gunn as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director, Taika Waititi makes fun of prior rumors he would direct. While there were still some fans that steadfastly held out hope Disney would eventually bring Gunn back into the fold, it’s safe to say most people were surprised when he was suddenly rehired as director of the Guardians’ third outing earlier today. Now, many fans are floating theories that Disney always planned to rehire Gunn once the heat from his Twitter scandal had died down, although one assumes him joining the DCEU to direct The Suicide Squad wouldn’t have been part of such a scheme.

That’s perhaps the strangest part of Gunn’s reconciliation with Disney, as now he’s set to become only the second director to oversee an entry in both the MCU and DCEU, after Joss Whedon. He actually might technically be the first director accomplish that odd feat, since Whedon didn’t end up being credited as the director of Justice League. In hindsight, it’s actually a bit amusing that the coordinated attack launched on Gunn by members of the right-wing media eventually ended up in him landing two high-profile directing gigs.

That aside, during the period Gunn was considered unlikely to return to Guardians of the Galaxy 3, most fans seemed to collectively decide that if anyone had to take over the job, Waititi would be the ideal choice. After all, he’d dealt with cosmic MCU material masterfully in the acclaimed Thor: Ragnarok, and also brought a Guardians-esque wacky sense of humor to his MCU film. In February, Waititi officially made clear he wouldn’t step in for Gunn, and one wonders if he knew at that time that Gunn was about to come back. Following the reveal of Gunn’s return, Waititi responded in the most hilarious way possible on Twitter, feigning outrage that he didn’t get the job.

Waititi had made it known several times in the past that he felt Gunn never should’ve been fired by Disney, and fully supported his return to Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Despite that fact, fans kept insisting he was the best choice for the job other than Gunn, and lamented the announcement that he wouldn’t direct. While Waititi is clearly happy Gunn was rehired, there’s little reason to doubt that he could’ve made a good Guardians sequel had he been interested in the job. In this case though, Waititi is one of many that considered the Guardians franchise Gunn’s creative baby, despite Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige recently downplaying Gunn’s role.

It’ll be at least a few years before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 materializes, as today’s report of Gunn’s return to the director’s chair specified that production on the sequel wouldn’t begin until after his work on The Suicide Squad wraps up. Knowing Marvel Studios though, they have plenty of interesting Phase 4 films waiting in the wings to be announced after Avengers: Endgame wraps up Phase 3 that will serve to fill the void until the Guardians are back in action.

More: Every Phase 4 MCU Movie In Development

Source: Taika Waititi/Twitter

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