The cast of the popular Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, including Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana and Vin Diesel, have thrown their support behind director James Gunn after he was fired by Disney over a series of old tweets joking about highly inappropriate topics. The cast signed an open letter expressing their shock over the sudden sacking, and asking Disney to reinstate him as the director of the upcoming GOTG film.
© Photo: TwitterRead the full letter here
The letter, which was shared on Instagram and Twitter by most of the cast, read: "We fully support James Gunn. We were all shocked at his abrupt firing last week and have intentionally waited these ten days to respond in order to think, pray, listen and discuss... We are not here to defend his jokes of many years ago but rather to share our experience having spent many years together on set... the character he has shown in the wake of his firing is consistent with the man he was every day on set, and his apology, now and from years ago when first addressing these remarks we believe is from the heart... Each of us looks forward to working with our friend James again in the future."
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Although many fans are keen to see James reinstated as the director, with over 350,000 people having signed an online petition for Disney to rehire the director, others were unhappy that the stars of the franchise are supporting James following the content of his now-deleted tweets. One person wrote: "Can't agree with you on this one. People keep saying, 'It was from years ago.' He was 41-years-old at the time. 41! Not some young man who's immaturity got the better of him. He KNEW the severity of his tweets," while another added: "He made a mistake and HE NEEDS TO PAY FOR IT. Stop this over crying about he being fired. People need to learn that making jokes about serious issues ISN'T FUNNY and that this type of mistake is not the type that you can forgive and forget with apologies."
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