'Guardians Of The Galaxy' Cast Responds To Shocking James Gunn Firing

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This year’s San Diego Comic-Con featured all the major stars and sneak peeks that were promised, however, the biggest news of the weekend didn’t involve “Aquaman” or “Godzilla.” No, the biggest news, by far, has to do with a company that didn’t bother with a Hall H presentation – Marvel Studios. With the drama surrounding the whole James Gunn fiasco, not even the mighty Shazam could compete.

Well, since it’s been a few days since Disney announced that they fired James Gunn as director of the upcoming “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” due to inappropriate tweets published almost a decade ago, everyone has been waiting to hear from the cast of his franchise. Surely, they would have his back, right?

The first cast member to speak out was Dave Bautista. The wrestler-turned-actor pretty much owes James Gunn and ‘Guardians’ his growing acting career and clearly was unhappy with the decision made by the Mouse House. But as the weekend came to a close, we heard from just about every member of the Guardians, and let’s just say some were more reserved than others.

“This account will be inactive after today. We’re very tired & upset over the ongoing BULLSHIT… neither I nor my rep will use Twitter again. Twitter sucks and I want nothing to do with it. Thank you to all who gave kind words & support. See you on Instagram,” tweeted ‘Guardians’ star Michael Rooker. It’s obvious that Rooker would be upset. Of all the cast members, he has one of the closest relationships with Gunn, starring in a number of his projects, and the least to lose, considering his character died in the previous film.

“It’s been a challenging weekend I’m not gonna lie. I’m pausing myself to take everything in before I speak out of term. I just want everyone to know I love ALL members of my GOTG family. Always will,” tweeted Zoe Saldana, aka Gamora.

“’Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.’ JAMES 1:19 ?♥” said star Chris Pratt, in an equally reserved way.

Of all the cast members, Saldana and Pratt probably have the highest profile and, perhaps, the most to lose. Maybe they’re waiting to see what happens before making definitive statements, but these two have decided to take the calm approach to the news, publicly.

Perhaps saddest of all is Sean Gunn, James’ brother and actor in all ‘Guardians’ films. Gunn not only played one of the Ravagers in the film, but also did all the mo-cap work for Rocket Racoon. As you might expect, Sean’s statement was very heartfelt and lengthy, but he concludes, “Working on those movies made my brother a better person, and they made me one too. I’ll always be proud of that. Peace.”

Of all the actors who have replied, Sean Gunn is the one actor that decided to use past tense when describing his work on ‘Guardians.’ It would be unlikely that he would return to the franchise without his brother, so it sounds like his message was also a goodbye to fans.

And of course, Bautista wasn’t done with his first statement condemning the firing. He tweeted again, as a warning that the “Cyber Nazis” are behind this news and that people shouldn’t let them win. “What happened here is so much bigger then G3, @JamesGunn ,myself,@Disney etc. This was a #cybernazi attack that succeeded. Unless we start to unite together against this crap, whether people are offended are not! …it’s going to get much worse. And it can happen to anyone,” said Bautista.

And while she’s not a cast member, one of the more vocal defenders of Gunn is none other than Selma Blair, who made headlines recently for her #MeToo story. She retweeted a Change.org petition (now over 170k signatures) to have Disney re-hire Gunn, and she also added some of her own thoughts on the filmmaker.

“Marvel: RE-HIRE JAMES GUNN – Sign the Petition!…Because if people are punished despite changing, then what does that teach people about owning mistakes and evolving? This man is one of the good ones,” said Blair.

It doesn’t appear that Disney is going to backtrack on their original decision, but the next step is to see what happens next. Will they shelve the project? Unlikely, considering it’s a cash cow for the company. Then who will they hire to replace Gunn? Will the cast walk away? Does the general public even care who makes the film?

For the first time in a decade, there’s a blemish on the Marvel Studios brand. Now, we see what they do next.

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