'Guardians of the Galaxy' Cast Wants Disney to Re-Hire James Gunn

The cast of Guardians of the Galaxy issued an open letter to Disney, asking the studio to re-hire franchise director James Gunn. Disney fired Gunn last week after right-wing internet media orchestrated a campaign to undermine the director. Since then, Disney has faced a backlash for bowing to the pressure. Read on for details.

Via The Hollywood Reporter.

Chris Pratt and his fellow Guardians of the Galaxy stars have released an open letter in support of ousted director James Gunn.

"Although I don’t support James Gunn’s inappropriate jokes from years ago, he is a good man," Pratt wrote Monday in an Instagram post in which he shared a letter co-signed by the cast. "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 referenced a Change.org petition asking for Gunn to be reinstated. So far, the petition has attracted more than 330,000 signatures following Disney's firing of Gunn on July 20 after offensive tweets resurfaced in which the filmmaker joked about topics such as pedophilia and rape.

"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, signed by Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn and Pom Klementieff. "In that time we have 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 who were so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories around him."

A little writing in Santa Barbara. This next one's a scary one. 👻

A post shared by Karen Gillan (@karengillanofficial) on Jul 8, 2018 at 6:28pm PDT

Gunn's offensive tweets were resurfaced by conservative personalities, and the Guardians stars referenced political pision in the United States in the letter.

"There is little due process in the court of public opinion. James is likely not the last good person to be put on trial. Given the growing political pide in this country, it's safe to say instances like this will continue, although we hope American from across the political spectrum can ease up on the character assassinations and stop weaponizing mob mentality," the letter continued.

In announcing Gunn's firing on July 20, 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."

Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.

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