Filmmaker James Gunn has found himself smack bang in the middle of a media maelstrom over the past several days, and it doesn’t look like it’ll quiet down anytime soon.
To recap: on Friday, Disney shocked the internet with the swift termination of Gunn’s contract, leaving Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 without a director and Marvel’s cosmic universe in need of a new shepherd. The reason for the firing can be traced back to a series of distasteful and indeed disturbing tweets from a decade ago – tweets that James Gunn has since apologized for.
Which brings us to today, when Roseanne Barr took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the situation. Having been fired from Disney/ABC herself for a similar situation, she made it known that she’s not happy with how many people are coming to Gunn’s defense, saying:
“I’m disgusted to read all of the support for James Gunn’s pedophile jokes – as the same people supported blacklisting me for a joke they didn’t even understand.”
As Barr states here, though they were both fired for similar reasons, the response to what the Guardians of the Galaxy director did has been drastically different. Whereas many people celebrated Roseanne being let go and her show being cancelled, the amount of support Gunn has seen has been overwhelming.
Not only are countless celebrities standing up for him, but a Change.org petition calling on Disney to walk back their decision to sever ties with the director has amassed just over 260,000 signatures at the time of writing. Impressive as that may be, we can’t imagine the Powers That Be will take too much notice of an online petition now that Gunn’s contract has effectively been terminated. Still, it just goes to show how many people are rallying behind the filmmaker.
Whichever side of the fence you fall on here, it’s hard to deny that it’s been fascinating to watch the fast and furious fallout to Disney’s decision to cut all ties with James Gunn, and as soon as we get an official statement from the studio on the matter, as well as any updates on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, we’ll be sure to let you know.
