Karen Gillan says Guardians of the Galaxy "wouldn't have been the same" without James Gunn

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Director Gunn, who was at the helm of the first two Guardians of the Galaxy films, was sacked by Disney in 2018 over a series of historic tweets.

At the time, a spokesperson for Disney explained, “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James' Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.”

The studio faced a huge backlash over the decision to drop Gunn over the posts, written over 10 years ago, with the Guardians of the Galaxy cast penning an open letter calling for his reinstatement.

Their cries did not go unheard, with Gunn confirming he had been reinstated as director for the film’s third outing in March 2019.

Former Doctor Who star Gillan, who plays Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, said the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie would not have been “the same version” without Gunn.

“His personality, the tone of those movies, I can only describe as James' personality,” she said to Marc Malkin on The Big Ticket podcast.

“It's his sense of humour, his writing, his taste in music. These characters are extensions of him. It's a really personal project for him.

"It definitely wouldn't have been the same version of Guardians."

Gillan’s sentiments have been echoed by her co-stars in the series, with Pratt telling People magazine that he was “so thrilled and so excited,” to be working with Gunn once again.

Although Gunn is now back as director, it may take a while until we see Guardians of the Guardians Vol. 3 in cinemas.

Inbetween his firing and re-hiring, he signed on to write and direct the Suicide Squad reboot for Marvel rival DC, as well as horror movie BrightBurn.

However, we’ve still got all the action from Avengers: Endgame to keep us going for now, at least.