James Gunn has been fired as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after old tweets have resurfaced.
Gunn joked about controversial topics such as pedophilia and rape and has since deleted his Twitter account.
Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement:
“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.”
Before Gunn deleted his account, he tweeted, “Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor.”
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was expected to begin shooting this Fall in Atlanta and Gunn has been writing the script for it. The film has an expected 2020 release date, but that could change due to this new development.
The Guardians of the Galaxy films have been a huge success for Disney and Marvel as the first movie made over $773 million worldwide with the second coming in at $863 million.
“The films stood out from other Marvel movies as they were infused with Gunn’s off-kilter filmmaking sensibilities that owed more to indie genre movies than slicker cookie cutter studio fare.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
