By In case you missed the Internet last week: James Gunn got fired from making Guardians of the Galaxy 3 for making terrible jokes 10 years ago. Jokes he expressed regret over multiple times previously and were entirely publicly available when he made Guardians 1 and 2. Jokes that were truly terrible and involved children, which obviously doesn’t reflect well on Disney’s family image. It’s easy to see why Disney would pull the trigger that fast, though the fact that the entire thing was kicked off by extreme right-wingers looking to punish Gunn is problematic at best. But now the entire cast of Guardians has come out in defense of the director, releasing a statement in support of Gunn and his reinstatement as director of the third film in the trilogy, which he had already begun work on.
This is a really well-written statement, though the release of it a week after the fact, and well into public opinion swinging in Gunn’s favor is a bit suspect. Some of the Guardians came out previously in support of Gunn in their own Tweets or statements, so maybe this is just the official way they want to express everything.
The real question is if it will have any effect. Obviously, there’s no mention of them not working for a different director or doing any kind of protest that might actually get Disney’s attention so I doubt that it will. The only thing that would move Disney’s needle slightly is if multiple leads said they wouldn’t return or maybe Chris Pratt walked. Hell, as far as we know Gamorra is dead as a doornail so there’s one less actor that can go on strike. I could easily see them recasting almost anyone else than Pratt or just writing a character out.
