Last week, director James Gunn was fired by Disney, due to several controversial tweets that he had said in the past. Now, a petition has been circulated online in order to rehire Gunn to direct the next installment in the Guardians Of The Galaxy franchise. As of Sunday, the petition had over 100,000 signatures.
From Entertainment Weekly:
Thousands have signed an online petition for the Walt Disney Co. to rehire Guardians of the Galaxy writer and director James Gunn after he was fired from the third film in the series Friday.
Gunn had been targeted for criticism by figures connected to a far-right fringe movement, who began highlighting a series of offensive shock-jokes Gunn made, some more than a decade old, on Twitter and his blog.
Fellow director Joe Carnahan (The Grey, Smokin’ Aces) shared the petition on Twitter, where it had collected more than 5,000 signatures as of Saturday afternoon. By early evening, it had risen to nearly 16,000.
By Sunday morning, the total had climbed to 51,000.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
Author’s opinion:
And just like that, James Gunn’s career is over.
When I first heard of James Gunn being fired by Disney, I decided to read a few of his controversial tweets. I thought his tweets weren’t very funny at all, that they were dumb things to say and that he had a sick sense of humor. I wont discuss their content here, since this is a Disney/family-friendly website, but if you want to read some of Gunn’s very questionable tweets, you can find them here.
At the time, I didn’t think Gunn deserved to be fired over of a couple of tweets. If anything, it showed a very poor judgement on his part. But, then I found out there weren’t a couple of controversial tweets, there were a lot of them. According to the link above, Gunn deleted 10,000 tweets just prior to the news breaking.
It seems like Gunn has a history of going to places in his tweets that he really shouldn’t, especially on social media. Unfortunately for Gunn, it’s hard to sweep some of the things he said under the rug and forget that he ever felt that way. And considering your employer is Disney, it’s almost impossible.
It’s sad because James Gunn really made significant contributions to the MCU. The idea of making a movie about Guardians Of The Galaxy was dumb founded. I felt back then that Disney was scraping the bottom of the barrel because they did not have the movie rights to Spider-Man, X-Men and The Fantastic Four. But James Gunn tackled the project and he was more than successful. Gunn was responsible for the choosing the cast and he made stars out of Chris Pratt, who previously was known for his role on Parks And Recreation, and Dave Bautista, who was mostly known for being a WWE wrestler. Gunn also decided to go with the idea of using classic musical hits from the 70’s for the soundtrack of the movie. And on top of that, he wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. With the success of Guardians at the box office, it made Disney and Marvel open to taking more risks, which opened the door for movies like Ant-Man, Doctor Strange and Black Panther.
With all of that being said, Disney did the right thing by firing James Gunn. But I also question, where was Disney and Marvel’s due diligence when hiring Gunn to begin with? I’m not sure if Marvel and Disney will go forward with a Guardians 3, or even if they should. It’s just unfortunate for the fans of Guardians that it had to end like this.
Editor’s Note: This article contains the opinions of the author, Joe Hogarty. These opinions may or may not align with those of WDWNT LLC, Tom Corless, or anyone else on this planet. Please feel free to voice your own thoughts in the comments section below.
He cannot be redeemed especially since Roseanne was dismissed with ONE tweet. His tweets are rather sick and verge on child ra pe.
have you read any Sarah Silverman, Gilbert Gottfried or Lewis Black jokes?
What are they sicko?
If our president can make awful “jokes” in the past and keep his job, Gunn should be able to keep his as well.
There is a big difference between the president and Gunn’s tweets. Trump never talked about about child rape like Gunn did. Trump definitely has said stupid things but nothing as despicable and evil as Gunn did. You leftists can never do no wrong apparently in some people’s eyes. You are the reason why this country is becoming more divided every day.
The author comments “According to the link above, Gunn deleted 10,000 tweets just prior to the news breaking.” I went to read the link — NOWHERE does it say anything of the sort.
It says read some tweets there. That’s it.
It says it in the headline, “James Gunn Endorses Pedophilia in 10,000 Deleted Tweets” and in the first paragraph.
If Tim Allen (a former drug dealer) and Robert Downey, Jr., can be “forgiven” for their previous CRIMINAL offenses and help bring Disney so much success (all the Avengers stuff and the Toy Story stuff, plus other things they’ve both done since cleaning up their lives), Gunn could be re-instated to the Guardians stuff…..the old tweets and bad “jokes” that got him in trouble….Disney or Marvel must have known about a long time ago….and just let him back with a strong warning. He has done a good job with the Guardians (I can’t speak for his former works) and should be able to finish what he began. And then everyone will watch him like a hawk for any future slip-ups. Lots of people have past situations they’re not proud of and some terrible things they’ve said or typed for others to see…..it’s just the current climate that makes this a “zero tolerance” issue and it doesn’t always have to be. Other people in the industry (and in other fields) can learn from these mistakes, too, and behave better for the sake of their careers, reputations and humanity in general.
Just to add a bit, I’ve now seen some of the samples of what he typed before (I didn’t know about all of it) and it is bad. So many people are sticking up for him now, though, and he is very sorry and has changed. I liked what his brother Sean wrote over the weekend (arguably the person who knows him best), and we’ll see what happens….but if Disney/Marvel doesn’t hire him back, oh well. Find someone just as good or better to do Guardians 3 if it even gets made now.
Perhaps it would be best to cite a source other than no notorious alt-right fringe nut job Mike Cernovich for support that over 10,000 tweets were deleted. Cernovich, one of the peddlers of the wholly invented pizzagate scandal that almost led to a dangerous shooting, delights in attempting to take down anyone with whom he disagrees; he targeted Gunn because of Gunn’s opposition to Trump. While I would concede that Gunn’s tweets were in poor taste and I can understand why he was fired, I do think he gave one of the best-worded responses and think it alone shows why Disney and others might not want to completely black-ball him.
Well put.
Signed.
Disney should have never caved to alt-right trolls.
No, they should have never hired this weirdo psychopath in the first place. Let’s be sure not to place the blame on the party that performed the act.
So because his jokes offended your delicate sensibilities, he should be fired? You “pearl clutchers” have been played by an alt-right rapist into getting upset over jokes that make you feel sad. Congrats I guess.
Disney shouldn’t cave to anybody, especially not leftists protecting this creep!
I’m glad Disney is taking a hard stand on issues like this. Thus far, they have been the most proactive of any of the studios on setting moral boundaries since the recent exposure of Hollywood’s sexual practices. This needs to continue. And yes, get Pain out of this overlay!
It’s time for the return of some moral decency.
when do we as a country say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ? whoopi Goldberg same same . sorry if you cant control your HATE maybe its time they find someone else.
The fact this many would petition for this creep says all you need to know about the current mental state of many people in this country. More amazing is that Disney would be this blind to these tweets (most likely not accidentally) until now. Most of us in corporate America have to pass a background check to even be considered for employment, including a scan of social media accounts. Apparently that doesn’t apply to Hollyweird directors. I am appalled and disgusted with what Walt’s vision has become with what’s going on inside his company now. The tree is diseased and dying from the roots up.
If you have kids, and you’re defending this guy? Wow. Go read his tweets and tell me this guy should be “re-hired” to make movies for your kids to watch. And the film industry can’t understand why they’re losing customers.
Ah…see, here’s the problem when you go on a witch hunt, and cast a wide net…you catch fish you never intended to. Sauce for the goose…