Over the last few weeks, the James Gunn social media saga has only grown. From the discovery of his Tweets that some claimed were an endorsement of pedophilia, to the joint statement of the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy, the fight to reinstate Gunn has become as loud as the denunciations from his detractors. Franchise star Chris Pratt opened up about the situation with the Associated Press Tuesday.
During the interview, Pratt made clear his support for the director during this rough time for the cast. He even noted that he hoped to see Gunn brought back for the third installment of the popular franchise:
“It’s not an easy time. We all love James and he’s a good friend of ours, but we also really love playing the Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s a complicated situation for everybody. And you know, we just want to move forward and do what’s right and be the best people we can be,”
It’s unsurprising that the star of the film, who is also close to the director, continues to signal his support. The problem is that Gunn’s firing has only become more complicated with the discovery of old Halloween photos from a “To Catch A Predator” theme party.
Gunn for his part has apologized for the tweets about rape and pedophilia – he said they were meant to be jokes at the time. Though not everyone is buying it. Some within the MCU have even gone so far as to unfollow the director on Twitter during this controversy.
As for Chris Pratt – you’ll notice he qualifies his statement: “…but we also really love playing the Guardians of the Galaxy.” When push comes to shove, it sounds like the stars will take their money over their friend, no?
He opened up about when he heard the news of the firing, and how “shocked” he was. Which was even more complicated with the all of this happening right around the time of San Diego Comic-Con:
“I love going to Comic-Con but I ended up not doing a lot of interviews around that time just because it was so shocking. All I know is we put a lot of time, thought and effort into the statement that we released about it. And I think we all kind of want that statement to be essentially what we have to say about it. And we were pretty clear and honest about how we feel,”
The fate of James Gunn in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Guardians remains unclear, as actors and fans push petitions for his reinstatement. All of this is now in the court of Disney. They have a tough decision to make when it comes the future of Guardians of the Galaxy.