James Gunn has always been known for saying it like it is on social media and for engaging in forthright chats with fans online. Well, even though he’s now a high-falutin’ studio executive, apparently that’s not going to change anytime soon as the freshly crowned co-CEO of DC Studios has pulled no punches in hitting back against a “racist” response to a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 casting choice.
The writer/director recently took to Instagram to share a new look at the High Evolutionary, the incoming threequel’s big bad, as portrayed by Gunn’s former Peacemaker collaborator Chukwudi Iwuji. Unfortunately, while the majority of comments were full of excitement to meet the villain — who happens to be Rocket’s creator — in the movie, there was one hateful response that caught Gunn’s attention.
We’ll refrain from regurgitating the replier’s rhetoric in full here, but suffice it to say that they blasted Gunn for hiring a Black actor as this character, as well as going on a tangent to criticize comic book adaptations for introducing “trans or homosexual or non-binary” characters too. The filmmaker wasted no time in shutting down the “fan” in question, by offering the perfect counter-argument.
On top of roasting the critic’s “racist presumptions,” Gunn maintained that Iwuji was hired because he was “the best person for the role.” Plus, he made clear how ludicrous it is for this person to be so concerned with skin color when the High Evolutionary is “almost always purple in the [comics].”
It’s frankly depressing that it’s 2023 and some people still react like this to comic book movie castings, but leave it to Gunn to destroy their argument in a couple of sentences. As he explains, the High Evolutionary has been depicted in various ways across his history on the page, including occasionally having purple skin, so getting mad at a superficial change being made to such an ever-changing character is patently ludicrous. Especially when we’re talking about a talented actor like Iwuji taking on the role.
No doubt we’ll all see why he was the only person for the part once Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 finally arrives in theaters this May 5.
Published: Mar 7, 2023 11:48 am