AceShowbiz - There's still a glimmer of hope that James Gunn may be back to direct "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3". Words are Marvel Studios is trying to convince Disney to reinstate the filmmaker after firing him due to his old tweets, in which he made light of rape, pedophilia, 9/11 and the Holocaust.

Deadline reports that the so-called "back channel" conversations are taking place after the cast signed an open letter in which they declared their loyalty to Gunn and called for his reinstatement. Among the key actors in the movie, Dave Bautista is the most vocal one.

The Drax depicter recently said he would return for the third installment of the "Guardians" film series only because it was a contract obligation. "I will do what Im legally obligated to do but @Guardians without @JamesGunn is not what I signed up for. GOTG w/o @JamesGunn just isn't GOTG," he tweeted. "Its also pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis . That's just how I feel."

He also threatened to quit the upcoming sequel if Gunn's script is not used. Gunn has finished writing the "GOTG 3" script, but with no director attached to it following Gunn's firing, the third film cannot move forward quickly.

Thus, it's not surprising if Kevin Feige "would make one last try" at fixing this issue and getting "GOTG 3" back on track. Any delay to the production would not do any good to Marvel and Disney, as the "Guardians" franchise has been one of the biggest tentpoles for the studios, with the first two films grossing a collective $1.6 billion worldwide.

It was previously reported that Disney and Gunn were still negotiating his exit, which is pretty complicated, but other major studios have eyed the director. Top producers and executives, including Warner Bros. which has its own superhero film universe, are reportedly eager to work with Gunn.