Per a report by industry bible THR, 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3' is officially on hold with pre-production effectively halted after crew members who were assembling for the movie were apparently told that they were free to look for other work.

The third instalment of the series was due to begin filming in the winter with pre-production kicking off this month, however the chaos that's ensued from Disney firing James Gunn has meant that no new director has been put in place and a supposed meeting earlier this month with the director and Disney CEO Alan Horn has ended all hopes of him coming back.

Although Disney had never set a release date for 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3', it was expected to be slated for an early 2020 release after the release of both 'Captain Marvel' and 'Avengers 4'. The cast, meanwhile, of 'Guardians of the Galaxy' have been making their feelings known on Disney's firing, with Dave Bautista repeatedly putting the House of Mouse on blast via Twitter whenever he can.

Just yesterday, Bautista retweeted a post that highlighted the vicious tactics used by far-right agitator Mike Cernovich, who was one of the ringleaders in the campaign to have Gunn fired.

The search continues for a replacement for James Gunn, with names like Taika Waititi being mentioned with some frequency whilst Gunn himself is now being courted by literally every other studio on the planet.

As it stands, Gunn hasn't accepted any offers and unless Disney makes a historic about-turn on its decision, he'll likely start to fill up his dancecard with work without the billion-dollar trilogy he helped to create.