Guardians of the Galaxy James gunn fired!!!

[Ozbridge]

Morally I think the decision is a bit harsh, but from a businessperson POV I agree with it though. In fact if I were Bob Iger I would have fired him just as quickly, but I wouldn’t have announced it as quickly (which, again, was also a business decision).

I’ve knew about Disney hypocrisy for years, they treat their Disneyland cast members horribly. That doesn’t prevent me from going to their movies.

 

[leo1993]

That's what he gets for not revealing easter eggs...
/s

 

[Skrilla31]

The world isn't actually black and white like that and you know it.

But if you want it black and white then try this on for size:

Gunn changed. Roseanne didn't.

Gunn was fired from something - from his past - before employed by Disney. Roseanne was fired for something - in the present - while employed by Disney.

I don't excuse Gunn's tweets. They're disgusting. But I don't believe this situation was handled properly. It is what it is.

This is the woman Roseanne accused of looking like an ape. You're telling me you are 100% certain that it was motivated by her racial bigotry?

You're telling me it isn't possible that someone could have mistaken her for a non-black person?

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

I guess I'm more cynical than you are in the view of Disney. Lol. I think that they certainly want to be seen as being up to the moral standards of today but I think that's because they want to appear accessible and opening to everyone , because they know there's more profit to made by presenting that image.

Disney's isn't exactly clean themselves when you look back at the blatant racism in some other their older animated canon, but even then , they were reflecting a lot of the racism of that time for profit.

They've distanced themselves from that stuff for sure, and I do think its important for them to keep that wholesome image they've had since the depression, but as I've said before, they're pretty cutthroat in business and this is the first time fandom is getting an appreciation for that.

Yeah I tend to be a little more idealistic - although that's getting harder these days.

You are probably right about their business practices - I can't speak to it because I don't know enough about it - but my initial feeling is that's the nature of capitalism for better or worse.

With regards to the racist content in older material, I do think we have to view past actions in the context of the time period in which they were made. Perhaps future generations will not look so kindly on things we consider acceptable now. What's important is that people can grow and change in positive ways.

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

This is the woman Roseanne accused of looking like an ape. You're telling me you are 100% certain that it was motivated by her racial bigotry?

You're telling me it isn't possible that someone could have mistaken her for a non-black person?

I don't want to get into that debate. Although I think it's a weak defense at best.

Personally, I think Roseanne is a horrible person. I think Gunn made horrible tweets. There's a difference.

How about we look at the respective follow ups to each of these situations?

Gunn:

"My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative. I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time.

"Regardless of how much time has passed, I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. Even these many years later, I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then. All I can do now, beyond offering my sincere and heartfelt regret, is to be the best human being I can be: accepting, understanding, committed to equality, and far more thoughtful about my public statements and my obligations to our public discourse. To everyone inside my industry and beyond, I again offer my deepest apologies. Love to all."

Roseanne:

"I thought the b**** was white!! God d*****!! I thought the b**** was white! F***!"

 

[MahvelBaby!]

The part that has bothered me more than anything is not the firing I totally get it from a business perspective...what bothers me is Alan Horne assuming we are all dumb and straight up pretending they didn't already know about these tweets lol. They knew and if they didn't someone somewhere is inept.

 

[Skrilla31]

I don't want to get into that debate. Although I think it's a weak defense at best.

Personally, I think Roseanne is a horrible person. I think Gunn made horrible tweets. There's a difference.

Of course you don't want to have that debate, because it would expose your hypocrisy.


You said these exact words just a few posts ago:

Because people are not objective anymore. It's all driven by bias based on who "your team" is. Facts don't matter.

And yet here we are and you are guilty of the very thing you claim you are against. Because you personally don't like Roseanne, you are choosing to ignore or even investigate the facts. You're certain she's a despicable person so any debate or conversation isn't important.


The fact is it's very possible that Roseanne's joke wasn't racially motivated, and if it that's the case then her firing is even more unjust than Gunn's.


But hey I know... you'd rather not have that conversation. Best to just fire people without hesitation whenever someone is even remotely offended by their social media posts.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

The part that has bothered me more than anything is not the firing I totally get it from a business perspective...what bothers me is Alan Horne assuming we are all dumb and straight up pretending they didn't already know about these tweets lol. They knew and if they didn't someone somewhere is inept.

Of course they knew. But the current "burn the witch" mob mentality wasn't nearly as significant until relatively recently. Disney didn't change. The world did. Things you could get away with even a year ago, you can't now, especially in Hollywood where the whole industry has been rocked since the Weinstein issue first broke. There is zero tolerance now. Many people have had their careers ruined, and many more will continue to do so. Gunn wasn't the first and he won't be the last.

And no, not all of the people that have this happen to them are equal in their offenses. But the mob doesn't care about that.

 

[Abudefduf]

Funny! But the “Shanghai, Hong Kong, egg foo young / Fortune cookie always wrong," was actually part of "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" in The Aristocats (1970) and not Lady and the Tramp (though that also did have [two] Siamese cats). My Disney nerd coming out

I'll have to take your word for it because I'm not familiar with the English version of these songs. lol

That's what he gets for not revealing easter eggs...
/s

Good God, you're right! What was the big secret GOTG easter egg? Will we ever know?

 

[Frodo]

Morally I think the decision is a bit harsh, but from a businessperson POV I agree with it though. In fact if I were Bob Iger I would have fired him just as quickly, but I wouldn’t have announced it as quickly (which, again, was also a business decision).

And you add to that the talk that Iger is considering running for President, in addition to the Fox deal, and in addition to the fact GOTG 3 hasn't even begun filming which means they haven't spent the money in firing a director during actual filming, means that it became more expedient for them to just toss Gunn under the bus and take any backlash and lumps from fans far in advance of GOTG 3 being released.

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

Of course you don't want to have that debate, because it would expose your hypocrisy.


You said these exact words just a few posts ago:


And yet here we are and you are guilty of the very thing you claim you are against. Because you personally don't like Roseanne, you are choosing to ignore or even investigate the facts. You're certain she's a despicable person so any debate or conversation isn't important.


The fact is it's very possible that Roseanne's joke wasn't racially motivated, and if it that's the case then her firing is even more unjust than Gunn's.


But hey I know... you'd rather not have that conversation. Best to just fire people without hesitation whenever someone is even remotely offended by their social media posts.

Hoo boy... here we go.

You are arguing that a picture you hand selected to be the whitest looking version of Valerie Jarrett you can find is a "fact" and resort to making a personal attack of hypocrisy because I don't want to discuss something that is clearly subjective. That's rich.

Yes I don't like Roseanne. Roseanne is a known racist pig and what she said was gross and offensive no matter how you try to spin it and is consistent with the type of person she continues to reveal herself to be (see her latest unhinged rant above). However, if she was the type of person who tried to learn from her mistakes, open her mind and mend her ways - to try and be something better then I would change my mind about her. But no - she's content to be the vile person she is no matter the consequences.

Meanwhile you conveniently ignore the fact that one thing occurred in the past and another thing occurred in the present because it suits your narrative.

So there - are you happy with where this discourse is going?

 

[Doug_Moore]

What was the big secret GOTG easter egg? Will we ever know?

Apparently the secret Easter egg in Guardians of the Galaxy is that for a split second, you can see that The Collector has a print out of all of James Gunn's pedophile tweets.

- @HardDriveMag

 

[samsnee]

When your argument is dependent on what shade of black someone is, I don’t think you have much of an argument left.

 

[samsnee]

No he didn't , but in this case, Disney didn't care about doing what was fair or just for Gunn, they did what they thought was in their own best interests, regardless of the fact he had these particular tweets accessible for years.

So in this case, they took his license away because the they didn't want the image of anyone getting anything short of a license suspended for drunk driving whether in the past or today.

What alot of fans can't seem to grasp, not saying you're one of them , is that Disney didn't care if it was fair or not. They did it to protect themselves.

They didn't do this as punishment to Gunn, but to save their own skins because they were worried it would hurt them. In that sense, it was a knee jerk reaction, but it was one based on what they thought was in their self interest as opposed to moral indignation.

Horn's statement was just something to make themselves look high and mighty as opposed to calculating.

I don’t think Disney did the right thing here but with today’s climate, I get why they did it. It’s a business and they did the cost benefit analysis of it.

 

[Detective Conan]

[YT]gr7Sbu2Zgk4[/YT]

 

[Frodo]

I don’t think Disney did the right thing here but with today’s climate, I get why they did it. It’s a business and they did the cost benefit analysis of it.

Yeah, which is what corporations will tend to do , and studio execs aren't exception.

The rules aren't consistently applied across studios to be sure, and one person may get a slap on the wrist, while the other gets ruined.

Its harsh, its cruel , but that is the way it is in Hollywood. At the same time, Hollywood can be forgiving and does love a come back story, so who knows what the future may hold for Gunn.

In this climate now though, I honestly can't say if WB, Paramount, Sony were in the same position that Disney was with Gunn, that they wouldn't have done the same thing Disney did.

Heck, I can't even say for certain that if the decision were somehow left to Marvel that they wouldn't have fired Gunn as well.

I guess we'll never know for certain how other studios would have responded, though it will get out sooner or later as to what was going on behind the scenes at Marvel studios over this whole thing.

 

[TheVileOne]

People keep saying James Gunn apologized earlier for the tweets...but when did he actually do that?

 

[TheVileOne]

[YT]gr7Sbu2Zgk4[/YT]

Not all of the tweets were prior to his employment with Disney...

 

[Zarex]

[YT]gr7Sbu2Zgk4[/YT]

As usual, Movie Bob nails it. Stop letting folks that have no decency take advantage of yours! Stop letting the bad guys win! Rehire James Gunn!

Not all of the tweets were prior to his employment with Disney...

Also per usual, you completely missed the point. There may have been a tweet or three you found offensive while he was engaged in writing the GOTG script, but his provocateur days were clearly coming to a close. Sure, Horn can use this technicality as an excuse for kowtowing to cybernazis. But it doesn't make this garbage decision right.

 

[TheVileOne]

Also per usual, you completely missed the point. There may have been a tweet or three you found offensive while he was engaged in writing the GOTG script, but his provocateur days were clearly coming to a close. Sure, Horn can use this technicality as an excuse for kowtowing to cybernazis. But it doesn't make this garbage decision right.

Not really. It just seems certain people are twisting the facts around to defend Gunn. If you are going to list off reasons to defend the man, at least make sure they are true.

Did cybernazis go after him for his provocateur content in 2012? No. It was a liberal, left-leaning website called Mary Sue.

 

[Raiden]

I have a feeling that Dave Bautista will not want to return for GOTG 3; it's plain to see that he's not going to let bygones be bygones.

 

[harlequinade]

5. The world would be a much better place if people stopped tweeting. Social media in general is poisonous and toxic. People should stop using them. Just for example. Look at Gunn's tweet directed at Leto. he basically comes in, posts a short tweet accusing Leto of being a predator toward underage women on the internet. No follow-up. There's nothing of substance. Yet he makes a serious accusation and basically accuses Leto of committing illegal acts. Why is this OK? All politics aside, why is it OK to do something like that?

The problem is the people not the tools they are given. I love using twitter and there's nothing but positivity in my notifications 99% of the time. I have been there for years and I had maybe a dozen of unpleasant and useless arguments. It's how you use the platform that's an issue with some people, not the platform itself.

 

[Zarex]

Not really. It just seems certain people are twisting the facts around to defend Gunn. If you are going to list off reasons to defend the man, at least make sure they are true.

Did cybernazis go after him for his provocateur content in 2012? No. It was a liberal, left-leaning website called Mary Sue.

The only folks twisting the facts - Thousands of tweets about pedophilia! Linked to a child pornography video! - are the alt right garbage humans and those too stupid to recognize what they are doing.

And The Mary Sue didn't "go after" Gunn. There's a difference between posting a thoughtful piece of journalism about a topic of concern and a cybernazi smear job. Unfortunately people are struggling to recognize this.

 

[Prettyricky]

Doesnt matter who dug up the tweets, it still comes back to gunn for even putting some of that stuff out there to begin with. If it was to get a response or rise out of people what was he hoping for exactly other then the current response were seeing? Same with roseanne over her tweets, you cant draw a line in the social media sand then bend that line when one of your favorites cross it. Ethier you get mad at all inappropriate post across the board or move on with your life and not care. You cant cherry pick as a society.

 

[Pokkle]

Doesnt matter who dug up the tweets, it still comes back to gunn for even putting some of that stuff out there to begin with. If it was to get a response or rise out of people what was he hoping for exactly other then the current response were seeing? Same with roseanne over her tweets, you cant draw a line in the social media sand then bend that line when one of your favorites cross it. Ethier you get mad at all inappropriate post across the board or move on with your life and not care. You cant cherry pick as a society.

A Joke and a racial insult aren't the same at all.


And Roseanne, after her apology, kept insulting the lady and retweet tweet that supported her behaviour towards this lady.