James Gunn dropped from GOTG 3

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I have to say that I am stunned at how many people are defending this guy.If this was a celebrity with even slightly pro republican quotes on his twitter and they had made these comments on twitter it would be completely over. Everyone defending gunn would be trashing that person insisting they never work again, contacting any sponsers associated with any of the companies they work for and threatening to boycott. There would be zero talk of "the person has changed" or "its in the past", it would be 100 percent condemnation with a bunch of celebrities coming out and applauding marvel and asking for movie studios associated with the guy to erase all mentions of the person. Pretty sure it would also lead to a bunch of assumptions about that person and their involvement in the activities that are mentioned in the posts. Gunn is getting a complete pass from some people because he is a liberal, plain and simple, if this was Tim Allen,Jim Cavielzel, Tim Tebow or anyone like that there would be no defense of this guy and every article about this situation would be absolutely destroying the person and anyone who defended him for making jokes that offended victims of the disgusting stuff gunn was joking about. I don't like either political side but the amount of hypocrisy being shown here is astounding. Lastly Gunn has spent a ton of time lately talking about the importance of words and jumping to conclusions about the character and morals of anyone he disagrees with, gunn himself would be trashing anyone who made "jokes" like this and would probably be grandstanding saying he would never work with any company associated with whoever had made the comments.

That's not true I like both Roseanne and Gunn. I also like Mel Gibson, Bryan Singer as well as various other lefties and righties.

People keep trying to simplify the current state of political correctness into left or right but the truth it a far more complex than that and the lazy label throwing actually makes it worse. I really do hate identity politics, it just avoids actual discussions in favor of going left or right for the sake of it.

[regg215]

You act like both sides don't have their own defenders.

I admit that both sides do have defenders , but that is certainly not true in hollywood and with the actors who have come to the defense of gunn. Those same people would be raising all kinds of hell and condemning anyone who was republican for these comments. Personally I don't like either political side and get that people defend their particular political party but typically there is some stuff that has limits and I would have thought the content in these would be it. I am just stunned at how hypocritical people are being with gunn, I am sure it happens on the right as well and certainly would call that out as well but this is kinda weird that hollywood where accusations destroy careers and about 20 celebrities come out a week to apologize for any comment deemed to not be PC enough, defending Gunn makes no sense.

[The Negative Zone]

I admit that both sides do have defenders , but that is certainly not true in hollywood and with the actors who have come to the defense of gunn. Those same people would be raising all kinds of hell and condemning anyone who was republican for these comments. Personally I don't like either political side and get that people defend their particular political party but typically there is some stuff that has limits and I would have thought the content in these would be it. I am just stunned at how hypocritical people are being with gunn, I am sure it happens on the right as well and certainly would call that out as well but this is kinda weird that hollywood where accusations destroy careers and about 20 celebrities come out a week to apologize for any comment deemed to not be PC enough, defending Gunn makes no sense.

Ah I see what you mean, I don't follow actors much to be honest and assumed you were referring to defenders on the forum. I imagine some of them might be afraid they'll be next, fortunately I don't think any of their outcry will do anything of note.

[lordozone]

I really think that his "jokes" were disgusting. But everybody make mistakes, and if we begin to destroy life for some stupid jokes that people did years ago and that they regret now, we are all at risk.
I know that personally, I have said some stupid things that I regret now.

But Famous people need to stop using twitter. Or only for promotional use. It's a toxic network were most people (for the right or the left) are here only to find something to be outraged.

I hate Trump, but if you are a mainstream artist, why allienate half your fanbase ? You are a Hollywood elite, your politics rant will only convince people who are already convinced. And if you take the moral high-ground, yes, opposants will be delighted to show the world your hypocrisy (and for god sake, it's not that complicated to delete old twitter posts that you regret !)

I really think that Disney was wrong to fire him for this. But I also think that James Gunn is the only responsible for this situation.

[Doctor Know]

I hope WBs hires him to do a Lobo movie or something in a similar vain. I still think this is dumb as is gonna set a bad precedent

Why limit it to Lobo? Make it L.E.G.I.O.N. or an Omega Men movie.


I think Gunn should do Suicide Squad 2.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I have to say that I am stunned at how many people are defending this guy.If this was a celebrity with even slightly pro republican quotes on his twitter and they had made these comments on twitter it would be completely over. Everyone defending gunn would be trashing that person insisting they never work again, contacting any sponsers associated with any of the companies they work for and threatening to boycott. There would be zero talk of "the person has changed" or "its in the past", it would be 100 percent condemnation with a bunch of celebrities coming out and applauding marvel and asking for movie studios associated with the guy to erase all mentions of the person. Pretty sure it would also lead to a bunch of assumptions about that person and their involvement in the activities that are mentioned in the posts. Gunn is getting a complete pass from some people because he is a liberal, plain and simple, if this was Tim Allen,Jim Cavielzel, Tim Tebow or anyone like that there would be no defense of this guy and every article about this situation would be absolutely destroying the person and anyone who defended him for making jokes that offended victims of the disgusting stuff gunn was joking about. I don't like either political side but the amount of hypocrisy being shown here is astounding. Lastly Gunn has spent a ton of time lately talking about the importance of words and jumping to conclusions about the character and morals of anyone he disagrees with, gunn himself would be trashing anyone who made "jokes" like this and would probably be grandstanding saying he would never work with any company associated with whoever had made the comments.

The problem with your first point is that it mostly relies on the facts that humans are generally hypocritical and more likely to take a hardline stance against minor infractions over people they agree with. That really has no bearing on the substance of whether Gunn's tweets should be a fireable offense and something he should be given a pass for.

The second part is that this is a very retroactive situation. These tweets were out before. Gunn still got the job. You can't even claim that Disney didn't know about them because they were made into a news story before. Roseanne's stuff was out there before too and she got show. There was a presumption of good behavior since that made people give him the benefit of the doubt. The fact that a political entity made this a newstory again to scare Disney ultimately makes it feel cheap.

Third I doubt it has anything to do with him being a liberal, I doubt most people care enough about Gunn to know his political affiliation. I couldn't tell you he was a liberal until the moment I read your post and I've defended him in this thread. He's just not important enough of a celebrity for most people to care about imo. A lot of people view it as a guy who made movies they enjoy who is being smeared for something that occured long ago and was known and not some big secret.

Lastly, I think the biggest problem is that a lot of people are reading those tweets and it's obvious that they are jokes. Bad tasteless jokes, but recognizably jokes. This isn't a guy hateful in his tweets or going on some insane rant and trying to pass it off as jokes. This isn't somebody trying to make a case that pedophilia or rape are okay. It's a lot of dark humor jokes and many that missed the mark. A lot of people are reading it and thinking "I can see where Disney might cringe a bit at that, but it's not that big a deal". Like I can't imagine a situation where someobody would say that in a social setting and not be told much more besides "maybe not the best venue for that kind of joke".

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I really think that his "jokes" were disgusting. But everybody make mistakes, and if we begin to destroy life for some stupid jokes that people did years ago and that they regret now, we are all at risk.
I know that personally, I have said some stupid things that I regret now.

But Famous people need to stop using twitter. Or only for promotional use. It's a toxic network were most people (for the right or the left) are here only to find something to be outraged.

I hate Trump, but if you are a mainstream artist, why allienate half your fanbase ? You are a Hollywood elite, your politics rant will only convince people who are already convinced. And if you take the moral high-ground, yes, opposants will be delighted to show the world your hypocrisy (and for god sake, it's not that complicated to delete old twitter posts that you regret !)

I really think that Disney was wrong to fire him for this. But I also think that James Gunn is the only responsible for this situation.

I'd be more inclined to agree if this happened the first time these tweets surfaced. But this is not the only time it was a story and quite frankly it's hard to believe Disney didn't know long before that

[XPac]

I'd be more inclined to agree if this happened the first time these tweets surfaced. But this is not the only time it was a story and quite frankly it's hard to believe Disney didn't know long before that

It seemed like a lot of people knew about Weinsteins behavior in the industry at least, before it finally came back to haunt him. Not that Gunns behavior is anywhere close to Weinsteins… but sometimes the environment makes it harder to look the other way.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

It seemed like a lot of people knew about Weinsteins behavior in the industry at least, before it finally came back to haunt him. Not that Gunns behavior is anywhere close to Weinsteins… but sometimes the environment makes it harder to look the other way.

It's not the same. Weinstein's behavior was NOT public knowledge. It was an industry secret. Same way Cosby's was. Weinstein's offenses were also criminal in nature. Gunn's tweets were public knowledge by virtue of being tweets from the beginning, they were a public newstory when he was hired, there was no way Disney didn't know when they employed him for the first film let alone the second.

Also people need to stop comparing everything to Weinstein. There is no comparison between Gunn and Weinstein to the point where it is irresponsible and far too damaging to compare offenses that way.

[Sacred Knight]

I'm not stunned he's being defended. He wrote some very off-color stuff in an attempt at really dark humor. Unless there's anything in his background to suggest anything more malicious than that, at the end of the day to me that's all they are.

Should he have lost his job? Not my call. His employers made a business decision. But I'm just saying I understand why friends and fans are coming to his defense. If I knew him, if he was a friend of mine, I would probably do the same. And hey I'm at least consistent. I thought the whole Roseanne thing was just as overblown. But, both are examples of how social media can come back to bite you in the ass. This is the society we've created.

[Divine Spark]

I'm not stunned he's being defended. He wrote some very off-color stuff in an attempt at really dark humor. Unless there's anything in his background to suggest anything more malicious than that, at the end of the day to me that's all they are.

Should he have lost his job? Not my call. His employers made a business decision. But I'm just saying I understand why friends and fans are coming to his defense. If I knew him, if he was a friend of mine, I would probably do the same. And hey I'm at least consistent. I thought the whole Roseanne thing was just as overblown. But, both are examples of how social media can come back to bite you in the ass. This is the society we've created.

Except Roseanne posted that tweet this year.

[XPac]

It's not the same. Weinstein's behavior was NOT public knowledge. It was an industry secret. Same way Cosby's was. Weinstein's offenses were also criminal in nature. Gunn's tweets were public knowledge by virtue of being tweets from the beginning, they were a public newstory when he was hired, there was no way Disney didn't know when they employed him for the first film let alone the second.

Also people need to stop comparing everything to Weinstein. There is no comparison between Gunn and Weinstein to the point where it is irresponsible and far too damaging to compare offenses that way.

I'm certainly not saying it's the same thing... what I am suggesting is that there are times it's easier for companies to pretend to look the other way. But now is not that time.

[GhostPirate]

I'd be more inclined to agree if this happened the first time these tweets surfaced. But this is not the only time it was a story and quite frankly it's hard to believe Disney didn't know long before that

You do understand that today =/= 6 years ago, right? Things change.

Disney just paid >$70 BILLION for new acquisitions to strengthen their brand, as it so happens, a brand that people generally equate with FAMILY friendly entertainment. They are obviously unwilling to risk investor confidence and audience goodwill at such a crucial time by continuing to employ someone with so many dark, pedophilia-related tweets being made very public.

Except Roseanne posted that tweet this year.

Except the worst of her postings would be considered tame compared to the least offensive of Gunn's.

[Midvillian1322]

Why limit it to Lobo? Make it L.E.G.I.O.N. or an Omega Men movie.


I think Gunn should do Suicide Squad 2.

Sounds good just think WB should make a statement by hiring him quick. Dont care for what.

[Star_Jammer]

Sounds good just think WB should make a statement by hiring him quick. Dont care for what.

At least DC could count on Gunn to be edgy enough for them.

(Do I get a "Zing!"?)