Disney and Marvel Studios have revealed they will rehire James Gunn to direct the third installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, despite a scandal last year involving multiple disturbing tweets related to pedophilia.
In an announcement made public Friday, the studios revealed they’d reached an agreement to bring back the disgraced filmmaker last year after firing him in July over numerous tweets publicized by journalist Mike Cernovich.
“He deleted over 10,000 tweets and also took down his personal blog, which told the story of a monkey masturbating on a child,” Cernovich described on his website.
A compilation of some of Gunn’s tweets reveals their over-the-top, disturbing nature in which he repeatedly “joked” about raping children.
“The jokes were more than five-years-old and also mocked sensitive subjects such as AIDS, the Holocaust, Mexicans, and ‘ass raping’ women,” reported Breitbart News at the time.
Other “jokes” unearthed by Twitter users, Breitbart reports, included:
…a post about a monkey that “jerked off” on a child, high-school kids masturbating “in front of the others to show how fun it is,” his alleged experience of doing a “reading with a convicted pedophile,” and how he wants to make a “Hollywood film adaptation of The Giving Tree with a happy ending – the tree grows back and gives the kid a blowjob.”
Furthermore, a blog post appearing on Gunn’s website titled, “Video: 100 Pubescent Girls Touch Themselves,” featured high school age girls singing the Divinyls’ song, “I Touch Myself,” which centers on female masturbation.
The next month images surfaced from Gunn’s website of him seemingly attending a pedophilia-themed costume party in which he dressed as a priest, with adult women dressed as little girls.
I wish I never defended James Gunn. pic.twitter.com/GdoG4daK8D
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 11, 2018
Deadline.com reports Disney President Alan Horn agreed to give Gunn a second chance after meeting with him on several occasions and being convinced by the sincerity of his apologies.
In a statement released by Disney following his firing, they described Gunn’s statements as “offensive” and “indefensible.”
JUST IN: Disney Studios cuts ties with "Guardians of the Galaxy" writer and director James Gunn.
"The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values," Disney says. https://t.co/k4wt7GS5IV pic.twitter.com/zwlGwN9inD
— ABC News (@ABC) July 20, 2018
Following Gunn’s dismissal, stars of the multi-billion dollar franchise, including Chris Pratt, Zoey Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper, wrote a joint statement in support of bringing back the director.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adan.salazar.735
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!