Disney recently fired director James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Marvel Studios over tweets that resurfaced from ten years ago joking about pedophilia and rape.
However, Disney found it no laughing matter, and when the tweets resurfaced, immediately severed their relationship with James Gunn as Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn, Kevin Feige’s boss, released the following statement: “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.”
Now ten days later, the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy officially releases a group statement in support of James Gunn asking for his reinstatement:
We fully support James Gunn. We were all shocked by his abrupt firing last week and have intentionally waited these ten days to respond in order to think, pray, listen, and discuss. In that time, we’ve been encouraged by the outpouring of support from fans and members of the media who wish to see James reinstated as director of Volume 3 as well as discouraged by those so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracies surrounding him.
Being in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies has been a great honor in each of our lives. We cannot let this moment pass without expressing our love, support, and gratitude for James. We are not here to defend his jokes of many years ago but rather to share our experience having spent many years together on set making Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2. The character he has shown in the way of his firing is consistent with the man he was every day on set, and his apology, now and from years ago when first addressing these remarks, we believe is from the heart, a heart we all know, trust, and love. In casting each of us to help him tell the story of misfits who find redemption, he changed our lives forever. We believe the theme of redemption has never been more relevant than now.
Here is the full statement, which is signed by Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff and Michael Rooker:
