Wow. Well, that escalated quickly. Yes, as the headline suggests, Disney has fired James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Over the past day or so, a whole slew of old social media messages from Gunn have resurfaced. Some may say the tweets were in bad taste, others may say misjudged humour, and others may simply say that they were absolutely horrendous. When the content includes topics such as rape and paedophilia, you seriously have to ask questions as to why this was ever deemed a good idea by Gunn, regardless of how long ago it was.
Gunn himself immediately took ownership of his old comments, explaining, “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.”
In addition to this, Gunn had actually discussed these comments way back in 2012, pretty much reiterating the above statement – that this was him stupidly trying to get himself noticed by being outrageous and controversial. And now, the House of Mouse has decided to axe the Guardians helmer.
In an official statement, Walt Disney Studios’ Alan Horn said, ““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.”
While Gunn has proven himself to be a ridiculously likeable, funny, and intelligent fella over the years, you have to say that Disney really didn’t have much of a choice on this matter – particularly if you’ve happened to see the tweets for yourself. We’re not going to post them here, but if you just have a quick search in that Google machine then we’re sure you’ll find said comments.
Since Disney made their decision, Gunn has a further statement:
“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.”
The last we’d heard on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was that the threequel would start shooting later this year ahead of a 2020 release. Gunn himself had stated that this would be the last movie for this particular Guardians line-up, although he didn’t rule out further films with a rotating roster of characters. For his part, Guardians Vol. 3 was to be his last Guardians film as director, but he was going to be hands-on in a creative capacity with what’s being dubbed the Marvel Cosmic Universe – basically, further exploring the Marvel Cinematic Universe up in the stars.
Expect more on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and this situation as it develops further.
