James Gunn, the embattled director of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy space opera is keeping a low social media profile in the wake of the uproar created by a year-old post "The 50 Superheroes You Would Most Like to Have Sex With" (see "'Guardians of the Galaxy' Shamed").  Gunn’s only Twitter post over the past 3 days was a photo of him embracing his favorite lioness.

When Gunn wrote that "sex with superheroes" post he was an anti-establishment indie film director with credits that included the far-better-than-average horror film Slither and the less-successful low-budget superhero parody Super that starred Rann Wilson and Ellen Page.  Now a year later Gunn, thanks to the intercession of Joss Whedon, is in line to direct a big budget Guardians of the Galaxy film for Marvel/Disney, which makes him an easy target for certain interest groups that are reportedly calling for him to be fired from his big Disney gig.

Gunn is definitely no shrinking violet, and while his tweets can withering ("There are a lot of great zombie movies, but I think the scariest is Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"), reading them gives the impression that he is an equal opportunity iconoclast, and not a homophobic misogynist as some might charge.

While some might feel satisfaction if Gunn is dismissed by Disney, his outside-the-box approach may be the only hope the Guardians of the Galaxy movie has to avoid the deadly dull fate of superhero space operas like Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern film.  Even without this controversy (and with the powerful Whedon in his corner) there was always the possibility that Gunn would run afoul of the powers that be at Marvel and Disney during the course of making Guardians.  It will be interesting to see if he is able to see the project through to completion.