Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan and the entire Guardians of the Galaxy cast pen open letter in support of director James Gunn
Pratt said that he would "personally love" to see the fired director reinstated for Guardians vol.3
The Guardians of the Galaxy cast – including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan and Bradley Cooper – has signed an open letter in support of recently fired director James Gunn.
Gunn was removed from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in July after a series of offensive tweets sent between 2008 and 2011 – which feature jokes about rape and paedophilia – were unearthed. And, after several actors posted messages of support on social media last week, the Guardians cast has now stood firmly with their former director.
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“We fully support James Gunn,” the group wrote in a letter posted on their personal social media accounts. “We were all shocked by his abrupt firing last week and have intentionally waited these ten days to respond in order to think, pray, listen, and discuss. In that time, we’ve been encouraged by the outpouring of support from fans and members of the media who wish to see James reinstated as director of Volume 3 as well as discouraged by those so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories surrounding him.”
While the note does not explicitly ask that Disney reinstate the director, Chris Pratt added in his Instagram post that he would "personally love to see" him re-hired for Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3.
Check out the letter in full via Pratt's Instagram below.
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The letter also touched upon the nature of the groundswell that led to his firing, which involved alt-right commentator Mike Cernovich circulating the tweets to his fanbase in order to force a move from Disney.
“There is little due process in the court of public opinion,” the cast wrote. “Given the growing political divide in this country, it’s safe to say instances like this will continue, although we hope Americans from across the political spectrum can ease up on the character assassinations and stop weaponising mob mentality.”
Along with Pratt (who plays Star Lord), Saldana (Gamora), Cooper (Rocket) and Gillan (Nebula), the letter was signed by Dave Bautista (Drax) – who has already been outspoken on Twitter in his support of Gunn – Vin Diesel (Groot), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Michael Rooker (Yondu) and Sean Gunn (Kraglin).
