Guardians of the Galaxy James gunn fired!!!

[Kuwolski]

Does anyone think they wanted to get rid of Gunn? They had him deliver a script, prep vol. 3, all in secret they wanted to fire him? How much logic is there to that?

I think it is very simple. He makes movies intended for families, at Disney. Kids are a huge part of the audience for Disney, as are women. He made a lot of jokes about raping both children and women. He apparently weathered one storm back in 2012, Horn and Iger didn't want to have to explain this to anyone, especially as it now shines a light on everything Gunn has ever done. So they decided to fire him. It does not seem complicated at all, nor is there some big conspiracy.

I'm not trying to create conspiracies, just speculating. Look at it this way, what is more harming to Disney's image, offensive jokes Gunn made a decade ago pre-Disney, or the most high profile director of their most successful studio inciting and antagonizing people on twitter? I often wondered how they felt about that. He's potentially alienating a large part of their audience. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if they thought his tweets were becoming problematic. I think firing him for the offensive/indecent jokes would play better to the masses then liberal/progressive Disney censoring liberal James Gunn for attacking Flintstonian right-wingers, etc. Fiction perhaps, but something that crossed my mind.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I'm not trying to create conspiracies, just speculating. Look at it this way, what is more harming to Disney's image, offensive jokes Gunn made a decade ago pre-Disney, or the most high profile director of their most successful studio inciting and antagonizing people on twitter? I often wondered how they felt about that. He's potentially alienating a large part of their audience. I think firing him for the offensive/indecent jokes would play better to the masses then liberal/progressive Disney censoring liberal James Gunn for attacking Flintstonian right-wingers. Fiction perhaps, but something that crossed my mind.

To Disney? The child and women rape jokes. Disney seems liberal and progressive views as a way forward to making money. Why they have started putting a lot of Gay Pride style merch in their parks. And it be clear, I am not saying that those that run Disney are super progressive. But they they see money in inclusion, and have placed themselves on that side of the divide. Look at the transition in the Iger/Trump relationship.

 

[Prettyricky]

I can see disney firing him for his tweets all around on both his jokes and right wing attacks. But honestly outside of die hard fans does most of the general viewing audience even know who james gunn is? Prior to this news breaking of course. Hes not a house hold name like Spielberg or even joss whedon or john favreau. I just feel like were making a big deal out of someone easily replacable.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

No, and that is probably why they feel secure in this decision. There is a real chance the public would have know him as the guy who made the pedophilia jokes more then anything.

 

[Fallen]

GA don't care much about the directors. Ask someone about Marvel/DC directors, most of the people will have no idea about it.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

GA don't care much about the directors. Ask someone about Marvel/DC directors, most of the people will have no idea about it.

Unless of course they are really famous or there is a scandal attached.

 

[Holiday]

GA don't care much about the directors. Ask someone about Marvel/DC directors, most of the people will have no idea about it.

Everyone knows Bill Smith is the director of Aquanaut

 

[Mask&Cape]

.........................id character. I just want to say, it stands to reason millions of people are out there laughing at the absurdity. Apologies to anyone out there who read this who have been victims or know someone who is a victim of sex crimes, but comedy is just tragedy + time.

A lot of people were fine with mass murder back in the 1940s. That doesn't make it okay does it.

Pointing out the awards, etc. doesn't counter the argument that paedophila is not funny. It just highlights the fact that there is something wrong with a lot of people.

And I never said anything against "dark humour". I've been very clear rape/paedophilia "jokes" are not humour at all.

And why are you "apologising" to to sex crime victims and then saying "comedy is just tragedy + time"? If you truly believe that then why do you feel the need to apologise? Is it because you know it wrong and hurtful? Then why post it? Or you think every thing is fair game so why apologise? It makes no sense.

 

[Mask&Cape]

Does anyone think they wanted to get rid of Gunn? They had him deliver a script, prep vol. 3, all in secret they wanted to fire him? How much logic is there to that?

I think it is very simple. He makes movies intended for families, at Disney. Kids are a huge part of the audience for Disney, as are women. He made a lot of jokes about raping both children and women. He apparently weathered one storm back in 2012, Horn and Iger didn't want to have to explain this to anyone, especially as it now shines a light on everything Gunn has ever done. So they decided to fire him. It does not seem complicated at all, nor is there some big conspiracy.

It really is that simple.

And I don't why so many people feel the need to to argue that Gunn did nothing wrong or it is in the past, etc. when the man himself has already made clear that he himself accepts Disney's decision and that what he did back then was wrong.

Arguing in defence of these kind of comments is simply showing that Gunn's so-called supporters have far less decency than the man himself.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

I'm not trying to create conspiracies, just speculating. Look at it this way, what is more harming to Disney's image, offensive jokes Gunn made a decade ago pre-Disney, or the most high profile director of their most successful studio inciting and antagonizing people on twitter? I often wondered how they felt about that. He's potentially alienating a large part of their audience. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if they thought his tweets were becoming problematic. I think firing him for the offensive/indecent jokes would play better to the masses then liberal/progressive Disney censoring liberal James Gunn for attacking Flintstonian right-wingers, etc. Fiction perhaps, but something that crossed my mind.

I think you’re on the right track. Only it isn’t their image Disney is concerned about, it’s the bazillion dollar acquisition of Fox, which *still requires regulatory approval from the government.* Disney execs stand to make millions from that acquisition and the last thing they need is a big fight with the MAGA crowd that could easily pull in Trump himself. Hence the high-speed firing. They want the seas smooth as glass rght now and Gunn got caught in the works.

 

[Yellow Cyclone]

if that's the chase then why don't they tell their A-list talent to tweet at trump?

the narrative fails there. ruffalo and evans are 2 of the biggest tweeters at that. not to mention they just picked up brie

horn overreacted (and/or is a closet trump support perhaps lol), and got swindled by the fake crocodile tears from the trump supporters

sarah silverman example is a perfect example because her entire career is based off offensive standup comedy and they've hired here twice

disney doesn't have to worry about regulatory approval for the merger, trump is for it due to the murdoch connection

 

[SomeOldGuy]

The question about A-list stars answers itself. Gunn, as already pointed out upthread, is a director only nerds like us care about. Firing, say, Captain America is a much bigger deal.

As for regulatory approval, if you can predict what the Trump White House will do with any consistency, I suggest you stop posting here and hightail it to DC because you could be a rich man in a very short time.

 

[eddy]

So James Gunn is still a producer on Avengers 4 right? Is this going to get brought up during the press tour or will it be forgotten about like the accusations against Stan Lee?

I assume he won't be attending anymore Marvel red carpet premieres.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

So James Gunn is still a producer on Avengers 4 right? Is this going to get brought up during the press tour or will it be forgotten about like the accusations against Stan Lee?

I assume he won't be attending anymore Marvel red carpet premieres.

I'd say he's not likely getting an invite for a bit, if at all. I can only imagine how many questions Feige and the rest of the Marvel people will be getting once they do become available for comment at their next event.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm very conflicted about this. I'm not sure James Gunn should've been fired.

As for the jokes, to the people saying you can never joke about those topics...well I mean...maybe not in that context, but in TV-MA shows those jokes are made.

Shows like Archer, Family Guy, South Park, Rick and Morty, and even The Venture Bros. have made jokes about pedophilia or even featured pedophile characters.

Putting Mr. Herbert from Family Guy aside, look at Sgt. Hatred in Venture Bros. He openly admitted to his pedophilia at one point and that he can't be within 10 feet of any children.

Now I am not saying everyone should be OK with that or like it. But what I am saying though is to point out to the people here who have that mindset, there are a lot of popular genre shows with fervent online fan communities that feature jokes and characters relating to pedophilia, rape, incest, and many taboo subjects.

I think the difference is that with those shows, you know those are edgy over the top and outrageous TV shows. They have more context.

The problem with James Gunn's tweets is that they don't have a TV-MA warning. And they were public, open to everyone. Anyone could find them. And a lot of the jokes lacked context.

It's easy for Gunn to say he was a provocateur and he liked to tell dirty jokes about taboo subjects. But since his tweets were public anyone could find them, and it's not such an easy thing to explain away or excuse.

Also not all of the really filthy ones were relating to just rape or pedophilia. Some of them were racial and homophobic in nature.

Once again, it's really easy for Gunn to say he's just saying these things to be funny or provocative, when a lot of those tweets aren't funny. It's not like he's a standup comedian doing a standup comedy set. Tweets don't really work like that.

Also, if that's the case, can't any person who posts really awful tweets use the same excuse?

It just seems like a lot of Gunn's fans are going out of their way to excuse this behavior.

But my basic point is to respond to the people who say you should never joke about those topics...well I mean a lot of popular shows make jokes about them. So it's not like some hard or fast rule.

Maybe a better way to put it is that you shouldn't joke about those kind of subjects on Twitter because 1) Twitter is not private, and 2) it's hard to explain the context of a short but filthy tweet that's on a very taboo or offensive topic.

 

[eddy]

Why are fans so loyal to James Gunn more than they were to Joss Whedon?

Alot of people have a axe to grind with Whedon from his previous works and creative choices while Gunn has given off this impression of being a cool guy with a heart. Truth be told, they're not "geek gods"...they're all humans with flaws just like the best of us.

 

[Webfoot Hero]

He also shouldn't have put them on Twitter because he's sort of co-mingling his work process and movie promotion stuff with those jokes, which could easily make people associate those jokes with Disney/Marvel.

 

[LoganGambit87]

it all comes down to the company james worked for which is Disney family friendly company for example late last year jason momoa apologized for a rape joke he made at SDCC 2011 and WB did'nt recast aquaman because of it

 

[eddy]

Agreed. Stupid decision. Bryan Singer can diddle boys and go on to direct x-men apocalypse. James gunn tweets a joke about the same, goes on to direct two gotg films, and then gets fired.

Smooth move disney.


Has anyone seen Super? Gunn literally made a feature length superhero film that included a young girl who rapes a man, and then proceeds to get shot in the head. Apparently that was okay for Disney to be associated with...

this is ****ing absurd.

Yeah anyone who is familiar with James Gunn's older work knows that he is twisted. When he first got hired for GOTG, there were feminists online calling for his firing THEN because of his pg porn youtube series.

 

[eddy]

I think Joss had plenty of loyal fans but Gunn tweeted really inappropriate "jokes" while Joss was all about feminism and that was his brand and it was revealed that he was more of a Parker then a Riley. And it involved someone else (ie: his wife)

Riley cheated on Buffy with a vampire.

 

[TheVileOne]

I also question people said he apologized for the offensive tweets. Before this most recent incident, when did he do that? The only thing I could find he apologized for was that list blog he wrote that The Mary Sue called him out for.

 

[TheVileOne]

Agreed. Stupid decision. Bryan Singer can diddle boys and go on to direct x-men apocalypse. James gunn tweets a joke about the same, goes on to direct two gotg films, and then gets fired.

Smooth move disney.


Has anyone seen Super? Gunn literally made a feature length superhero film that included a young girl who rapes a man, and then proceeds to get shot in the head. Apparently that was okay for Disney to be associated with...

this is ****ing absurd.

Disney had nothing to do with that Singer decision. That was 20th Century Fox, and at the time, a lot of fans were on the side of Singer and calling those accusations baseless and supported him.

 

[eddy]

They should pull GotG3 from the slate. Those films are so tied to Gunn's style and aesthetic that doing another would be a pale imitation.

I agree but theres no way they'll cancel the movie as they've probably already invested too much into it. These Marvel movies do alot during pre-production nowadays with alot of previz work being laid out months in advance. If the movie was really going to start shooting in the fall then they've already sunk too much into it.

 

[eddy]

Who had to delete 10,000 tweets about pedophilia? Are we moving into hyperbole territory now? Sure lets go for it!

How about the hundreds of millions of children that have had to suffer through Star-Lord's jokes about *********ion and Drax's jokes about a man's penis?

Remember Donald Glover? The guy Disney just recently cast in Solo and Spider-Man Homecoming? I seem to remember him saying he'd rather get AIDS than have a baby. And that's pretty tame compared to some of his material.

Anyone remember what RDJ was up to a decade before Disney hired him?

Donald Glover was ahead of the curve. This whole time I've always wondered why he deletes all of his tweets. Smart man.

 

[Doug_Moore]

Just reading some of his Tweets, it sounds like Batista won't be coming back for Guardians 3 since he's taking Gunn's firing personally. I feel sorry for his agent / publicist.