The Guardians of the Galaxy are on a rescue mission.
Chris Pratt and his fellow Guardians of the Galaxy stars have released an open letter in support of ousted director James Gunn. The letter also calls on Disney and Marvel Studios to reinstate the filmmaker in the wake of backlash over controversial tweets he made years earlier.
“Although I don’t support James Gunn’s inappropriate jokes from years ago, he is a good man,” Pratt wrote in an Instagram post, in which he shared a letter co-signed by the cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I’d personally love to see him reinstated as director of Volume 3. If you please, read the following statement- signed by our entire cast.”
In the open letter, the cast discusses a Change.org petition that asks for Gunn to get his job back. The petition has attracted more than 330,000 signatures since Disney fired Gunn on July 20 after offensive tweets resurfaced in which the filmmaker joked about pedophilia and rape, reports THR.
“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,” began the letter, which is signed by Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker and Pom Klementieff. “In that time we have been courage 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 who so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories around him.”
While announcing Gunn’s firing, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said: “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.”
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
