According to several outlets, Disney has severed ties with Director James Gunn after a series of old tweets have resurfaced. The Director was responsible for the massively successful Guardians of the Galaxy series, and was about to start filming Guardians Volume Three as early as this fall.
“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,” said Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn in a statement.
Before deleting his Twitter account, Gunn tweeted, “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.”
The firing comes after the Tweets, originally from 2009-2012 were dug up by conservative bloggers, and contained transgressive jokes about rape and pedophilia.
Gunn had already finished the script for Guardians of the Galaxy 3, which was supposed to start production in Atlanta, and aimed for a 2020 release date. It’s unclear who will take up the reigns for Gunn, or if the script he wrote will be used.
It may be too soon to be talking about replacement directors, but we do have to stop and wonder what a Taika Waititi directed Guardians would be like, considering that Thor: Ragnarok was one of the best and funniest entries in the Marvel Universe. Just sayin.
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