Guardians of the Galaxy actress Glenn Close says it's 'hard' to think of franchise without James Gunn

Guardians of the Galaxy actress Glenn Close has addressed the subject of James Gunn and his removal by Disney from the third entry in the hugely successful Marvel franchise. Interviewed in the upcoming issue of the U.K. film magazine Empire, Close explained that she found it difficult to imagine the series without the filmmaker.

“It’s hard to think of it without him,” says Close, who played the character of Nova Prime in 2014’s original Guardians of the Galaxy. “It’s sad. And it brings up, I think, some very tricky issues around this movement. I bring it up with every woman I talk to because I want to know what people feel, you know? Is that truly what we should be doing? Especially in this case, somebody who’s known to ruin people for something that they wrote in a totally different context, what, ten, 12 years ago? What are we going to do, go back to our pasts and make sure that everything we said was politically correct? Who can live like that? I just feel that there’s something wrong about that.”

Gunn already wrote a draft of the script for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 when Disney announced the company “severed our business relationship” over decade-old tweets from Gunn joking about rape, pedophilia, and other inappropriate material. These “totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative,” as Gunn called them, were unearthed by alt-right conservatives in response to the filmmaker’s outspoken political beliefs online.

Gunn said, in part, through an apology, “I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time.”

Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Dave Bautista, and Sean Gunn all signed an open letter on the matter in support of Gunn’s reinstatement. However, reports surfaced that Disney would not reconsider its decision and would instead look to hire another director to take over.

In a British TV interview broadcast last weekend, Bautista said he was unsure if he would appear in the third Guardians film.

“It’s a bitter-sweet conversation — um, no it’s a bitter-bitter conversation because I’m not really happy with what they’ve done with James Gunn.”

He added, “They’re putting the movie off. It’s on hold indefinitely. To be honest with you I don’t know if I want to work for Disney.”