Guardians of the Galaxy James gunn fired!!!

[Detective Conan]

If Disney is being consistent they need to recast Sarah Silverman in Ralph Breaks the Internet, remove Hannibal Burris from Spider-Man sequels, fire Whoopie Goldberg from The View, and immediately cancel Family Guy after the Fox acquisition is completed.

Yeah Family Guy has tons of pedophila jokes. Heck there’s even character called Herbert who’s an old man who clearly has the hots for Chris Griffin(who’s a high schooler) and there’s a recurring joke on the show about him hitting on Chris.

 

[TheVileOne]

Gunn's only apology as far as I can find before this incident was his superhero sex list.

 

[TheVileOne]

Yeah Family Guy has tons of pedophila jokes. Heck there’s even character called Herbert who’s an old man who clearly has the hots for Chris Griffin(who’s a high schooler) and there’s a recurring joke on the show about him hitting on Chris.

Family Guy is not a Disney property...yet. They had nothing to do with Family or Mr. Herbert beforehand.

The point to be made here is that there are animated cartoon shows that are quite popular and have jokes or characters relating to rape, pedophilia, and the like. They include Family Guy, The Venture Bros., South Park, and Archer.

 

[DyeLorean]

I'm thinking out loud here. Wouldn't it be better for everyone involved if Disney talked to Gunn about it, and instead of firing him, just acknowledging that what he said was very very wrong, and issue an statement and making an example about that people can change and admit their mistakes and focus on the positive instead of the negative?.
He probably is an example that you could've been an a**hole for a period of your life, you can't change that, but you can change your way of thinking moving forward?
Bear in mind I'm not very involved in what he said or the political context (I don't live in the US), but I'm trying to make sense of the whole situation. Is there something more that I'm missing?

 

[Zarex]

I'm thinking out loud here. Wouldn't it be better for everyone involved if Disney talked to Gunn about it, and instead of firing him, just acknowledging that what he said was very very wrong, and issue an statement and making an example about that people can change and admit their mistakes and focus on the positive instead of the negative?.
He probably is an example that you could've been an a**hole for a period of your life, you can't change that, but you can change your way of thinking moving forward?
Bear in mind I'm not very involved in what he said or the political context (I don't live in the US), but I'm trying to make sense of the whole situation. Is there something more that I'm missing?

You are missing absolutely nothing and are 100% correct. An immediate firing based on the work of a cybernazi was the worst possible way to handle this situation. Horn and Feige at the very least should have had a sit down together and then with Mr. Gunn. Make your apologies and state firmly that the "jokes" do not reflect the values of The Walt Disney Company. If you decide to make a directorial change after putting some thought into the action there would have been a lot less outrage from fans and cast members. How Horn handled it was complete BS.

 

[samsnee]

Family Guy is not a Disney property...yet. They had nothing to do with Family or Mr. Herbert beforehand.

The point to be made here is that there are animated cartoon shows that are quite popular and have jokes or characters relating to rape, pedophilia, and the like. They include Family Guy, The Venture Bros., South Park, and Archer.

You could argue those shows aren't intended for younger audiences and air at a later hour.

Might be a different story once the mouse owns everything. You'll get your MCU Fantastic Four movie but better hope none of the creative talent ever said anything in appropriate on social media.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I think Disney made the right call for their own interests. I've yet to be convinced they didn't make the right call for their own interests.

Now, whether that's fair or not, or Gunn deserved to be fired for his tweets is a separate issue imo.

But as far as what was in the best interest of Disney and they're PR, yeah, they made call imo.

They'd rather have actors and fanboys complaining about Gunn's dismissal then having to explain the context of his remarks, disavow his remarks, but then defend their decision to keep him, to the press.

If they didn't fire him the media pressure as well as that from advertisers and ultimately shareholders would have been immense. Rightly or wrongly, there is zero tolerance in today's environment for that sort of thing. People have been getting fired left and right and having careers ruined over the last year or two for things they did or said years ago. If they didn't fire him, not only would it hover over the entire MCU for the next couple of years, it could potentially put Feige's, Horn's, and even Iger's jobs in jeopardy if shareholders got upset enough.

Whether you think he deserved to be fired or not is a different story, but for the good health of the company, they had no choice. Two years ago they could haven gotten away with a public apology. Not today.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Family Guy is not a Disney property...yet. They had nothing to do with Family or Mr. Herbert beforehand.

The point to be made here is that there are animated cartoon shows that are quite popular and have jokes or characters relating to rape, pedophilia, and the like. They include Family Guy, The Venture Bros., South Park, and Archer.

People view things differently if they occur in an obvious fictional show or film as opposed to a personal Twitter account. Unless it is crystal clear that you are playing a character on Twitter (like say if RDJ posted as Tony Stark instead of himself), they are going to take it as your own true thoughts.

 

[samsnee]

But it does now set a new precedent. As someone mentioned, Sara Silverman is known to be a rauncy comedian. Everyone knew this when she was in Wreck-it-Ralph. Now what do you do when she's in the sequel that's already been made and out in 3 months?

I think they could have drawn a line like someone said. Unlike Roseanne, who's firing started this whole thing, Gunn didn't tweet anything new that was offensive. I know it seems like a low bar, but at least Disney could have said they spoke to him about it and gave him a warning.

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

Ugh. I can't even keep up with all the garbage these days.

What Gunn joked about - based on some of what I've seen - was utterly despicable and I neither condone nor excuse it. I personally hate all that provocative kind of humor South Park, etc. I thought it was effed up the way Deadpool joked about murdering the guy in the trunk. Seems like people want things both ways - they want to be shocked and yet to not be shocked.

But at any rate, Gunn clearly regrets the things he said and he even apologized as far back as 2012. People aren't allowed to change?

I really don't know what Disney should have done but I'm not convinced they made the right call here. I do understand their predicament though. Tough situation all around.

Honestly this whole thing reminds me of what happened to Al Franken. Gunn has been very vocal about Trump and his corruption of the US government. This was a political take down if you ask me.

 

[NHawk19]

Also interesting is the fact that they want him gone but all that money his films made they're ok with keeping. . . .

 

[Zarex]

If they didn't fire him the media pressure as well as that from advertisers and ultimately shareholders would have been immense. Rightly or wrongly, there is zero tolerance in today's environment for that sort of thing. People have been getting fired left and right and having careers ruined over the last year or two for things they did or said years ago. If they didn't fire him, not only would it hover over the entire MCU for the next couple of years, it could potentially put Feige's, Horn's, and even Iger's jobs in jeopardy if shareholders got upset enough.

Whether you think he deserved to be fired or not is a different story, but for the good health of the company, they had no choice. Two years ago they could haven gotten away with a public apology. Not today.

Luckily, there's zero tolerance for lots of stuff in today's environment. Sexual harassment, racism, homophobia can all have you packing a small box with your desk items. But inappropriate jokes told to other folks before (or around the same time as) the commencement of your employment? That's new.

If this is the case the combined Dis-Fox is going to have to stock up on pink slips for pretty much every comedian now working for the company, including Hannibal Burress, Sarah Silverman, Whoopi Goldberg and (soon) Seth McFarlane.

And I think you are going WAY overboard with the potential fallout from keeping the director on. An apology from Mr. Gunn combined with a statement affirming that the "jokes" in no way reflect the values of The Walt Disney Company would have, imo, killed the story by the end of the weekend. Advertisers and shareholders ain't going to go after guys who put money in their pockets because of the sleuthing of a cybernazi.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

Luckily, there's zero tolerance for lots of stuff in today's environment. Sexual harassment, racism, homophobia can all have you packing a small box with your desk items. But inappropriate jokes told to other folks before (or around the same time as) the commencement of your employment? That's new.

If this is the case the combined Dis-Fox is going to have to stock up on pink slips for pretty much every comedian now working for the company, including Hannibal Burress, Sarah Silverman, Whoopi Goldberg and (soon) Seth McFarlane.

And I think you are going WAY overboard with the potential fallout from keeping the director on. An apology from Mr. Gunn combined with a statement affirming that the "jokes" in no way reflect the values of The Walt Disney Company would have, imo, killed the story by the end of the weekend. Advertisers and shareholders ain't going to go after guys who put money in their pockets because of the sleuthing of a cybernazi.

All it takes is Fox News to pick up on it or one Tweet from Trump and it would be a massive ****storm. Just look at how they are killing the NFL right now who have seen ratings and sales plummet because of it. By then it is too late. Disney had to nip it in the bud.

 

[Zarex]

Honestly this whole thing reminds me of what happened to Al Franken. Gunn has been very vocal about Trump and his corruption of the US government. This was a political take down if you ask me.

The liberals, moderates and non-extreme conservatives are playing by a completely different set of rules than their alt-right opponents. The first grouped can be shamed into firing employees and stepping down from their posts because of moral failings. The deplorables can never betray their morals because they haven't any.

 

[Tony Stark]

Wile I'm not going to justify anything Gunn said and at the end of the day he is responsible for what he wrote, I will say that people change and from my understanding that he did delete those tweets before he ever worked for Disney and that he accepted responsibility for them. This has obviously caused some turmoil within the Guardians family as most of the prime actors have tweeted out expressing support for James.

Like I say, I totally understand that Disney probably had little choice in the matter once it got out and was acknowledged, however I think prosecuting people for past behavior is a slippery slope. I take James Gunn at his word in that the tweets were deleted long ago, and I do believe that people change. I am certainly guilty of doing and saying some stupid things in the past and I hope that people would judge me on the person I am now.

Having said that Gunn took a step out on debating political issues on twitter. While I believe that everyone has the right and freedom to express their opinions, I think social media is one of the worst places to do that. Internet trolls, hecklers are just a few of the problems. I don't want to get into a political discussion but look with the current President we've seen an escalation in using social media as a weapon and it's not healthy.

I think that everyone should examine their use of social media and ask themselves before posting if it's the best place to express your opinion. Issues are too complex that tweets can be misinterpreted and saying things that you would say jokingly to a few of your friends are not really the best things to state publically.

What's odd to me is that with some of Gunn's tweets especially the ones about pedophilia, are in direct contrast to things he's said in the past. There was a story he has been very public about that apparently the priest at the church he grew up in was convicted of molesting children, some of them his friends. It seems strange that he would almost be making light of that in his tweets.

In any case I can't fault Disney with firing him. It's a no win situation, if they keep him on they get blasted by one group of customers, and now they are getting blasted by those that support James. Ultimately we all have to be responsible for what we say and do, and that even things we're not proud of in our past can come back to haunt us.

It's really just sad that it all had to resort to this.

 

[Zarex]

All it takes is Fox News to pick up on it or one Tweet from Trump and it would be a massive ****storm. Just look at how they are killing the NFL right now who have seen ratings and sales plummet because of it.

Do you think Fox news is going to stir up crap on Disney less than a week before the merger vote? UNLIKELY!

And despite all of the pearl clutching over kneeling players (THE HORROR!), NFL ratings are up in comparison to the competition and the league is setting revenue records. FAKE NEWS!

https://deadspin.com/all-the-controversy-in-the-world-cant-stop-nfl-revenue-1827646752

https://deadspin.com/for-the-last-time-nfl-ratings-are-not-down-theyre-up-1827378925

 

[Tony Stark]

Not sure if it's been mentioned before but it was Alan Horn that fired Gunn, not Kevin Feige. To my knowledge this is the first time that Disney really publically intervened into one of it's subsidiaries affairs.

 

[Ragnaroknroll]

The liberals, moderates and non-extreme conservatives are playing by a completely different set of rules than their alt-right opponents. The first grouped can be shamed into firing employees and stepping down from their posts because of moral failings. The deplorables can never betray their morals because they haven't any.

The left does seem to eat its own amidst all the virtue signaling and hypocritical pearl clutching but the most disturbing thing is how people seem to be holding entertainers to higher standards than their so-called leaders.

Meanwhile a dangerous precedent is set that you cannot criticize those in power. And if you do, you better be perfect yourself.

Having said that Gunn took a step out on debating political issues on twitter. While I believe that everyone has the right and freedom to express their opinions, I think social media is one of the worst places to do that. Internet trolls, hecklers are just a few of the problems. I don't want to get into a political discussion but look with the current President we've seen an escalation in using social media as a weapon and it's not healthy.

My take is that Gunn has been genuinely alarmed by what he is witnessing taking place in the country of which he is a citizen. He was willing to risk his career to speak out in the way he best felt he could. And it has cost him dearly.

 

[Zarex]

Not sure if it's been mentioned before but it was Alan Horn that fired Gunn, not Kevin Feige. To my knowledge this is the first time that Disney really publically intervened into one of it's subsidiaries affairs.

Kevin Feige has had free reign at Marvel Studios after extracting himself from Perlmutter. This is the first MCU personnel decision that didn't come from him. With Feige's contract up next year, this is very bad news.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

This sentence... I can't even...

You mean Twitter, where you have to have access to the internet, type in the URL/install the app, create an account, search for the person you want to follow, and then delve 10 years back to the tweet in question just to be offended by it?

Like, seriously? Worse than the hundreds of people that worked on and okayed the aforementioned pedophila/rape jokes on basic cable?

You seem to be ignoring the obvious point. What Gunn and everyone else uses their twitter for. You can't because you make up fallacies and try to argue them. You want to compare something a studio signed off on to something he decided to do on his personal twitter. When he did it, unless he made it know to his employer, isn't really relevant. Which is why they are in the right to hire, fire, and/or rehire or never talk to him again.

 

[terry78]

Yeah, Twitter is pretty bad about it. I tweeted, which I rarely do, that I don't condone what Gunn wrote, yet it seems weird that people higher up don't suffer the same fate. Immediately got bombarded with "you must be a pedo too" responses via the hashtag.

 

[samsnee]

Kevin Feige has had free reign at Marvel Studios after extracting himself from Perlmutter. This is the first MCU personnel decision that didn't come from him. With Feige's contract up next year, this is very bad news.

How is this bad news? With the Fox acquisition, I imagine Disney has even more of a reason to keep him around. And while Feige may not like the decision (we don’t know yet), he genuinely has a love for the characters so I assume his contract renegotiations will be made in good faith.

 

[Zarex]

How is this bad news? With the Fox acquisition, I imagine Disney has even more of a reason to keep him around. And while Feige may not like the decision (we don’t know yet), he genuinely has a love for the characters so I assume his contract renegotiations will be made in good faith.

He may decide to move on to a studio that will give him control over personnel decisions. He will have the opportunity to do so.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Yeah, Twitter is pretty bad about it. I tweeted, which I rarely do, that I don't condone what Gunn wrote, yet it seems weird that people higher up don't suffer the same fate. Immediately got bombarded with "you must be a pedo too" responses via the hashtag.

Twitter is the place of extremes. Ugh. Sorry man.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

He may decide to move on to a studio that will give him control over personnel decisions. He will have the opportunity to do so.

He has it there. If you think any studio will allow him to have hiring/firing power over those that actually run the corporations, that is crazy. He'd have to be chairman of the company, in which case, he isn't making movies at that point.