​'Guardians of the Galaxy' Stars React to Firing of Director James Gunn

BY Sarah MurphyPublished Jul 23, 2018

James Gunn was fired from the upcoming third instalment of Guardians of the Galaxy last week, after a series of offensive tweets were recently uncovered by conservative trolls. Following a strong reaction from fans, stars of the film franchise have now also voiced their reactions to the news.
 
Stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista have each spoke out about Gunn's firing, though where they stand on the decision isn't entirely clear in every case.
 
Saldana took to Twitter to say that it's been a "challenging" time, but reiterated. "I love ALL members of my GOTG family."
 
Pratt, meanwhile, shared a cryptic Bible verse — probably not coincidentally from the book of James — that reads: "Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pratt was not asked questions about his Guardians of the Galaxy director at San Diego's Comic-Con this weekend. He was there to promote the upcoming The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.
 
Dave Bautista, however, leapt straight to the director's defence after he was fired.
 
Michael Rooker took things a step further and completely left the social media platform over the controversy.
 
Meanwhile, Gunn's brother, actor Sean Gunn, also shared unwavering support for his brother.
 
 

It goes without saying that I love and support my brother James and I'm quite proud of how kind, generous, and compassionate he is with all the people in his life. Since he was a kid, it was clear he had a desire (maybe destiny) to be an artist, tell stories, find his voice through comics, films, his band. The struggle to find that voice was sometimes clunky, misguided, or downright stupid, and sometimes wonderful, moving, and hilarious. Since devoting his entire life to the Guardians movies and MCU six years ago, I've seen him channel that voice into his work and seen him transform from the guy who made up things to shock people. I saw firsthand as he went from worrying about "softening his edge" for a larger audience to realizing that this "edge" wasn't as useful of a tool as he thought it was. That his gift for storytelling was something better. I saw that he was more open-hearted than the guy who thought he needed to get a rise out of people by making nasty or offensive jokes (or whatever you choose to call them—I don't think his bluer material was ever his funniest and neither does Mom). And the best part is, this change in my brother was reflected in the change that the Guardians go through. I've heard my brother say many times that when Quill rallies the team with "this is our chance to give a shit"—to care—that it's the pep talk he himself needed to hear. It's part of what made working on the Guardians movies such a rewarding experience for the cast. We managed to find ourselves involved in a big-budget superhero movie that was, at its core, deeply personal. That's a gift. And that's why it's good. This isn't new information, by the way. It's all stuff that James has explained many times in interviews, in more detail and more eloquently. It's not some new spin. It's always been part of this story. So I guess my hope is that fans continue to watch and appreciate the Guardians movies, not despite the fact that the filmmaker used to be kind of a jackass, but because of it. They are, after all, movies about discovering your best self. Working on those movies made my brother a better person, and they made me one too. I'll always be proud of that. Peace.

A post shared by Sean Gunn (@thejudgegunn) on


 
As previously reported, a petition was launched by fans to reinstate Gunn as the director of the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy 3. As of press time, it is currently up to 172,658 signatures.
 
Other members of the Hollywood community have also voiced their support for Gunn, as well as the petition. See some of those reactions below.
 
 
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