At this very moment in time, Disney and Marvel Studios are still casting the net in search of a new director to take on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
From what we understand, that search is currently ongoing, but we can at least rule out Paul Feig from the list of potential candidates. The filmmaker confirmed as much during his appearance on MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz (h/t ComicBook.com), where he admitted that he has no intention of stepping on anyone’s toes as the Guardians franchise really belongs to James Gunn.
The latter was swiftly removed from his post seven weeks ago, after a series of inappropriate tweets were uncovered from Gunn’s Twitter feed. The Mouse House didn’t hang around, and severed ties with James Gunn faster than you could say Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – much to the chagrin of Dave Bautista, who threatened to walk away from the project altogether if Marvel decided to scrap Gunn’s original screenplay.
It’s now looking increasingly likely that Gunn’s script will be used, after all, but that hasn’t swayed Paul Feig’s decision. Per Happy Sad Confused, the Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters director effectively ruled himself out of the race for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
I would never take anything away from another filmmaker. You can think whatever, moralize about what James wrote. I don’t make those kind of jokes, I don’t like those kind of jokes. But still, that’s James’ franchise.
If you’re curious, Feig has also been speaking about the fate of his planned Ghostbusters sequel, which seemingly would’ve brought the supernatural action onto a global scale replete with Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Chris Hemsworth as the ridiculously clumsy Kevin.