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Personal History
James Gunn was born in St. Louis, Missouri, as one of six children in an Irish Catholic family. He spent much of his early life reading comic books and making zombie movies with his brothers, one of whom is actor Sean Gunn, who portrays Kraglin and provides motion capture for Rocket throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He attended multiple schools before earning his Master in Fine Arts from Columbia University.
Gunn has an immense love for animals, and his style is most well-recognized for his tongue-in-cheek, uniquely twisted, and weird sense of humor, combining it with thematically placed licensed music, and strong emotional themes of family and self-improvement. He is married to Jennifer Holland, who he has worked with on his DC projects.Professional History
Starting as a screenwriter primarily working for Troma Entertainment in the 1990s, James Gunn gained some recognition for writing the Scooby-Doo films for Warner Bros. However, his big break came when he wrote and directed Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for Marvel Studios, both of which were critical and commercial successes, and propelled the then-unknown team of the Guardians to being household names.
Gunn was set to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 since before the release of Vol. 2, but in 2018, he was briefly fired from Marvel Studios in the wake of controversial tweets made years ago resurfacing on the internet. After Gunn's apology and several of his friends in the industry vouching for him, he was rehired by Marvel and reinstated as the director of Vol. 3, along with writing and directing a television special known as The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. He began work on these projects with Marvel in late 2021 after making the film The Suicide Squad and the series Peacemaker for DC Studios.
In late 2022, Gunn took the role of co-chairman of DC Studios, managing the general creative direction for the DC brand in film and television, with Peter Safran managing the business side of the company. After the Guardians trilogy was completed, he returned to DC full time to manage DC's creative future on the big screen, and develop future projects with them, some written and directed by Gunn himself, including the animated series Creature Commandos and the movie Superman.Work History
Trivia
- Several actors who Gunn worked with on the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy he also worked with at DC Studios, such as Sean Gunn, Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Sylvester Stallone, Chukwudi Iwuji, Steve Agee, and Daniela Melchior.
- Rooker and Fillion have been friends and collaborators of Gunn's since his first film, Slither, and are the only two actors other than Sean Gunn to have worked with him in all of his movies.
- Gunn has cameoed in every Guardians project so far. He portrayed a maskless Sakaaran in the first film, and provided the dancing motion capture for Groot in Guardians, Vol. 2, and the Holiday Special.
- Gunn is a songwriter, having written the song "Guardians Inferno" for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and co-writing the song "I Don't Know What Christmas Is (But Christmastime Is Here)" for The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special with Rhett Miller of the Old 97's.
- Gunn has a fondness for animals, and usually includes an animal character in his projects, such as the raccoon-like alien Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy and the bald eagle Eagly in Peacemaker.
- Gunn has discussed the idea of a potential film crossover between the DC Extended Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige.[1]