The 52-year-old filmmaker was fired by Disney Studios in July after old tweets resurfaced which included jokes about paedophilia, rape, AIDs and the Holocaust.
Walt Disney Studio’s Alan Horman said in a statement:
“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.”
James Gunn, who wrote and directed the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies and had written the script for the third, which is currently set to be released in 2020, apologised for his actions in a series of tweets on July 19th.
The latter of them, said: “I used to make a lot of offensive jokes. I don’t anymore. I don’t blame my past self for this, but I like myself more and feel like a more full human being and creator today. Love to you all.”
One of the jokes Gunn made in 2012 was “The Expendables was so many I f**d the Sh** out of the little p***y boys next to me. The boys ARE back in town!”
Despite this, the cast of the highly successful film series released an open letter to their fans and friends on July 30th expressing their dissatisfaction with the decision made and their “full support” of James Gunn.
“In casting each of us to help him tell the story of misfits who find redemption, he changed our lives forever. We believe the theme of redemption has never been more relevant than now.”
Though, many of their fans were not moved by this gesture. One twitter user, @kpondsong said: “it doesn’t matter that he made those tweets 10 years ago he still did it. No person who makes these kinds of jokes should work for a company aimed at kids.”
Other twitter users such as @jennscribbles noted, “The biggest star in the Marvel Universe [referring to Robert Downey Jr. who has previously struggled with drug abuse] is the living embodiment of having a terrible past and changing for the better.”
Contrasting views were amplified on Sunday, when Ian Miles Cheong, journalist for The Daily Caller published photographs of what he alleges to be Gunn at a costume party based on the programme ‘To Catch a predator (2004-2007)’.
The show was an American reality television series produced by NBC that was devoted to detaining male adults who contacted underage people as young as 12 for sexual liaisons.
In one of the photographs, Gunn is dressed as a priest, and standing next to a woman in pigtails with a thumb in her mouth.
Chris Pratt stated in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday that he stands behind social media posts which express a desire for Gunn to be reinstated for the next movie.
Regardless of Disney’s future actions regarding the upcoming Guardians film, the organisation appears to have both lost and gained a large amount of fans on account of their detachment from Gunn.
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