Disney 'unlikely' to re-hire Guardians of the Galaxy's James Gunn, according to reports
Despite an open letter from the Guardians of the Galaxy cast and public backlash, Marvel and Disney are said to be standing firm in their decision to fire the director
Despite mounting pressure from the public and the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, Disney is reportedly 'unlikely' to re-hire director James Gunn for the third instalment of the film franchise.
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Gunn was removed from Guardians Vol 3 in July after a series of offensive tweets sent between 2008 and 2011 – which feature jokes about rape and paedophilia – were unearthed.
In the weeks since, over 360,000 people have signed a petition calling for the director to be re-hired, and the cast – including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper and Karen Gillan – wrote an open letter in support of their former director. Pratt added in an Instagram post that he would "love to see" Gunn get his job back.
However, Variety reports that Disney is not likely to budge on their position, as the feeling within both Marvel and Disney is that the jokes Gunn made are "unacceptable in the #MeToo era and are not in line with Disney’s family-friendly image".
One unnamed source "close to the matter" is quoted as saying: “I don’t see Disney re-hiring him. Those tweets were so horrible and Disney has a different standard than other studios.”
Disney has yet to officially comment on the matter.
