Disney’s PR nightmare over the firing of Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn continues. If you’re just now discovering this ongoing tire fire, here’s a quick rundown: James Gunn directed the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies to acclaim and success. He had already written a script for Guardians 3 and was ready to move forward when extremely tasteless tweets he made years ago, before Disney hired him, came to light. Disney dubbed the tweets “indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values” and fired him. Gunn was contrite, saying “I understand and accept the business decisions taken today” and “I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then.” Fans and celebrities came to Gunn’s defense, with all of the major actors on Guardians — including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista — signing an open letter of support.
As of now, Disney has made no move to rehire Gunn, and it doesn’t look like it will. Bautista, who plays the overly literal alien bruiser Drax, has been more vocal about this than most, tweeting that he’ll do what he’s contractually obligated to do but isn’t happy about it:
I will do what Im legally obligated to do but @Guardians without @JamesGunn is not what I signed up for. GOTG w/o @JamesGunn just isn’t GOTG. Its also pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis . That’s just how I feel https://t.co/Ym4FwruVDu
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 5, 2018
The “cybernazis” Bautista refers to include alt-right media personality Mike Cernovich, who dug up Gunn’s tweets with the goal of getting him fired, which is a pattern with this guy. There’s no question that Cernovich is a terrible person — he got his start in the men’s rights movement, calls people who disagree with him pedophiles, and helped spread the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which came to a head when a man fired an assault rifle in a pizza restaurant — but that doesn’t change the fact that Gunn did send those tweets. When evaluating Disney’s decision to fire Gunn, I’m not sure it matters who found the tweets, only that that they exist.
But clearly, Bautista disagrees. While he’s said he’ll fulfill his legal obligation to Disney, he may have a breaking point, as he told ShortList: “Nobody’s defending tweets, but this was a smear campaign on a good man,” Bautista said. “I spoke to Chris Pratt the day after it happened and he’s a bit religious so he wanted time to pray and figure it out, but I was more like: f*ck this. This is bullshit. James is one of the kindest, most decent people I’ve met.”
"Where I’m at right now is that if [Marvel] don’t use [Gunn’s scripts for Guardians of the Galaxy 3], then I’m going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me. I’d be doing James a disservice if I didn’t."
And the fire burns on.
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