Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn’s old collection of sick tweets in which he spewed gross humor and made jokes about rape, pedophilia, sex, and masturbation, unfortunately resurfaced on Thursday.
Right-wing news personalities managed to locate his now deleted tweets, written between 2008 to 2011, circulated them and began calling for his dismissal.
A day later, as if on cue, Disney fired Gunn (left).
[Note: Disney own Marvel, the producers of the Guardians of the Galaxy flicks].
“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”, Walt Disney Studios chairperson Alan Horn explained his sack.
One example of his offensive tweets: “I’m doing a big Hollywood film adaptation of The Giving Tree with a happy ending – the tree grows back and gives the kid a blow job”.
Gunn has also been a vocal critic of Donald Trump, which might help explain why there are conservatives who were so insistent on seeing him get his comeuppance.
Gunn tried to add context to the tweets on that same Thursday.
“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”, he tweeted.
“It’s not to say I’m better, but I am very, very different than I was a few years ago; today I try to root my work in love and connection and less in anger. My days saying something just because it’s shocking and trying to get a reaction are over”.
Still, the filmmaker said he would “accept the business decision made” and take “full responsibility” for his past tweets.
“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”, Gunn reiterated.
“To everyone inside my industry and beyond, I again offer my deepest apologies. Love to all”.
But his comments were not enough to change Disney’s mind.
Gunn had directed both of Marvel’s two Guardians of the Galaxy movies and saw them take off to wild success. He and his cast and crew are credited with taking an obscure comic book team and turning them into a massively successful franchise.
He had been working on the script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which was expected to be released in 2020.
I understand that those tweets are really fucked up – but everyone makes mistakes, and he regretted them. In fact, he had already apologized for his tweets even before GOTG.
Give him a break lah!
Everybody deserves a second chance. Even a third, if it comes to that.
And remember, Guardians of the Galaxy is all about a group of bad people who learn to be better people and do good. It's about redemption.
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