Guardians of the Galaxy 3 Director Fired For His Tweets From 2008

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Several tweets from James Gunn’s account resurfaced where the Director of Guardians of the Galaxy volumes was seen joking about contentious issues such as pedophilia. As a result of this Disney and Marvel had to let go of James Gunn who gave them mega-hits by directing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.1 & Vol.2 and was expected to work on the third volume as well.

Chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Alan Horn reflected on this issue by saying:

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.

Whereas James Gunn replied on this matter with the following tweet as first:

Many people who have followed my career know, when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor.

It’s not to say I’m better, but I am very, very different than I was a few years ago; today I try to root my work in love and connection and less in anger. My days saying something just because it’s shocking and trying to get a reaction are over.

 

Many of these tweets by James Gunn were written back in 2008 & 2009 but reemerged after a media website cracked them up from the past.

On Friday afternoon James released his public statement for an apology of his past conduct:

My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative. I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time.

Regardless of how much time has passed, I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. Even these many years later, I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then. All I can do now, beyond offering my sincere and heartfelt regret, is to be the best human being I can be: accepting, understanding, committed to equality, and far more thoughtful about my public statements and my obligations to our public discourse. To everyone inside my industry and beyond, I again offer my deepest apologies. Love to all.

Although Marvel had not issued any date 2020 was likely going to be the release year for Guardians of the Galaxy

Vol. 3. The shooting of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 was projected to begin this fall in Atlanta and James had been busy in script writing of the third volume also. Now with Gunn out of the picture fans have been starting to ask for Thor Ragnarok’s Director Taika Waititi. We’ll have to wait to see if that works out.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter