Guardians of Galaxy director fired

LOS ANGELES — James Gunn was fired Friday as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 because of old tweets that recently emerged in which he joked about pedophilia and rape.

Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said in a statement: “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.”

Gunn has been writer and director of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise from the start, taking an obscure Marvel Comics title about a group of multicoloured misfits and turning it into a space opera decked with comedy and retro music that made Chris Pratt a major star. Through two instalments, the franchise has brought in more than $1.5 billion US in global box office.

Gunn apologized for the old tweets Friday after his firing, echoing similar sentiments he expressed on Twitter a day earlier.

“My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative,” Gunn said in a statement.

“I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don’t reflect the person I am today or have been for some time,”

Gunn’s current Twitter account is heavy on left-leaning politics. Some on the right with whom he’d sparred found and promoted the tweets from 2008 to 2011 that led to his firing.

Disney did not announce a replacement director for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Gunn had been writing the script and it’s not clear how far along he was or whether new writers will be brought in. Marvel Studios has not announced a release date, though Gunn had said 2020 was the target.

In addition to Pratt, the Guardians franchise stars Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista, and features the voices of Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel.