INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Disney fired director James Gunn from the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol
3, the company confirmed at Comic-Con this week
The move came after highly offensive joke tweets dating from between 2008 and 2011 resurfaced
The tweets, which have since been deleted, make light of topics ranging from molestation and rape to pedophilia.
&The offensive attitudes
and statements discovered on James& Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio values, and we have severed our business
relationship with him,& Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement provided to TechCrunch.
1
Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were
As I have discussed publicly many times, as I&ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor.
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 20,
2018
Gunn, for his part, acknowledged the distasteful statements
The director, who helmed the first two installments of the Marvel franchise, tweeted a multi-part apology/explanation for the old tweets, in
which he refers to himself as a &provocateur& during his early career.
&I used to make a lot of offensive jokes,& Gunn wrote
I don&t blame my past self for this, but I like myself more and feel like a more full human being and creator today.Love you to you
all.&
Prior to helming blockbuster superhero films, Gunn made a name directing films for Troma, the comedically offensive, aggressively
B-movie studio behind films like The Toxic Avenger
The tweets resurfaced after being promoted by right-wing personalities like Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich
Gunn has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration andtook to Twitter to weigh in on actor/director Mark Duplass& recent tweets about
conservative pundit Ben Shapiro.
Update: Gunn has issued a statement that reflects and expands on his earlier Twitter apology,
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
