Petition To Rehire Sacked Guardians Of The Galaxy Director James Gunn Closes In On 300k Signatures

A Change.org petition calling on Disney to reinstate James Gunn as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is fast approaching 300,000 signatures.

That’s almost a 33 percent increase over yesterday’s figure, when the impassioned plea had broke past the 200k marker. At the time of writing, the exact number of signatures is simmering just north of 265,000, but if it maintains this kind of pace, it will have exceeded 300k by Thursday, give or take.

Even if that forecast is a little off, the fact that Chandler Edwards’ petition has amassed a quarter of a million signatures really goes to show that some people aren’t happy with Disney’s decision to part ways with James Gunn – Thanos creator Jim Starlin even went so far as to suggest that the Mouse House made “one hell of a bad call” when it terminated the director’s contract. And he’s not the only one.

Whether this Change.org petition makes much of a difference is another question entirely, though we can’t imagine a company of Disney’s stature will back-pedal now that Gunn has been fired. Edwards, for one, refuses to hold his breath:

I’m smart enough to know this most likely won’t change anything but hopefully, this could get Disney to realize the mistake they made and not do it again in the future. If Marvel would come to their senses and rehire Gunn that would be great. But if all we can do is have proof, by your signatures, that Disney made a mistake, I would still count that as a win.

Considering Disney only severed ties with James Gunn on Friday evening, the fallout has been fast and furious. Many of the filmmaker’s frequent collaborators – namely Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldana – have voiced their solidarity with Gunn, and even called on Disney to reassess their decision so that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 may continue with its original director behind the wheel.

However, others, like former ABC star Roseanne Barr, aren’t convinced, and believe James Gunn’s sudden dismissal is the right call considering the gross and insensitive natural of those resurfaced tweets.