James Gunn was recently fired from his job as the director of Marvel and Disney's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, after decade-old tweets resurfaced. In the old tweets, Gunn satirically addressed rape and pedophilia, making light of the subjects. Disney CEO Bob Iger and Studio Head Alan Horn were quick to dismiss Gunn, and with the current #metoo and #timesup movements overturning Hollywood, it seems like they had no choice.
The cast of the Guardians films got together to release a joint statement in support of Gunn after his firing. "We fully support James Gunn," wrote the cast. "We are not here to defend his jokes of many years ago but rather to share our experience having spent many years together on set making Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2." The statement, signed by everyone from Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, to Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel, wasn't enough to win Gunn back his job. While anything is possible, Variety reports that sources in Disney are claiming that the company has washed their hands of the director. “Those tweets were so horrible and Disney has a different standard than other studios," stated one of the sources. In the wake of the recent "let's dig through celebrity tweets" trend, prestigious people are hiring companies to comb through their accounts.
