Guardians of the Galaxy Castmates Share Open Letter in Support of James Gunn

Well, it took some time, but the castmates of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 have officially united in support of their fired director. James Gunn, the writer-director of the Guardians series, was fired by Disney recently after offensive, decade-old tweets he made were unearthed by conservative pundits, apparently angry that the director had criticized President Donald Trump. Today, the main players of Guardians, including the likes of Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel and Karen Gillan, presented an open letter via Pratt’s Instagram account, in which they all vouched for Gunn. Pratt introduced the post by saying “Although I don’t support James Gunn’s inappropriate jokes from years ago, he is a good man. 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.”

A cynical observer would look at phrasing such as “we waited to think, pray, listen and discuss,” and conclude that the cast members were instead waiting to assess public reactions and judge whether their support for Gunn would be met with applause or abuse. After more than 335,000 members of the public signed a petition to reinstate Gunn, that choice presumably became a bit easier.

Still, this letter, as it circulates, amplified by the huge social media presences of all of the actors involved, will surely gather much more support for Gunn, as well as a vitriolic wave of right-wing backlash. It seems unlikely that it could possibly convince a global juggernaut such as Disney to change its mind—because when does Disney ever change its mind—but it certainly could convince another studio to find a new project for Gunn, if they deem his presence wouldn’t be a detriment.

As for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, we stand by our earlier assessment that Marvel already has one failsafe option that should be immediately explored—have Thor: Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi direct it. If you can’t get Gunn back, the Kiwi-born director should at least be able to produce a film in the same tonal ballpark.