James Gunn Shares Why He Came Back for 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3' Before DC Move (Exclusive)

etonline.com:

is an epic conclusion to James Gunn's space saga that's been nearly 10 years in the making. But it almost didn't happen at all.«Totally, thousand percent, didn’t think I was coming back,» Gunn told ET's Ash Crossan when they sat down to discuss the conclusion of the Guardians' MCU storyline.Gunn was fired from the Marvel film by Disney in July 2018 after controversial jokes he made nearly a decade earlier were resurfaced on Twitter.

Shortly after his firing, Gunn apologized, while thecast — including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista and more — expressed their support for Gunn in an open letter, asking that he be reinstated as director.

He was ultimately reinstated in March 2019, however, Gunn admitted that the damage had been done.«Listen, I wasn't sure I was going to come back when it was offered to me,» he shared. «I had to think about it.»«But the thing that made me come back was, of course, my cast, who have supported me so much throughout all of this,» Gunn continued. «But really, the thing was, I just needed to finish Rocket's story.

I knew that he had a story that I had in mind from the beginning. That was important to me. And I didn't want to leave the character hanging.»Rocket Raccoon, who is voiced by Cooper and played on set by Gunn's brother, Sean Gunn, is the central focus of, with flashbacks showing how he was cruelly experimented on as a baby rodent, and the tragic events that led him to become the bitter genius we all know and love.«I've just seen so many movies where they're trying to save the universe and you don't really care, at the end of the day,» Gunn said of crafting the final story in his trilogy.