Marvel Studios(LOS ANGELES) — Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan are the latest of the franchise’s stars to weigh in on the firing of James Gunn as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 over past offensive tweets that joked about rape and pedophilia.
While a Sunday-night tweet from Pratt, who plays Star-Lord in GotG, didn’t directly mention Gunn or the controversy, he seemed to be addressing the firing when he wrote, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. JAMES 1:19.”
Saldana, who plays the alien assassin Gamora, was a little more direct but chose her words carefully: “It’s been a challenging weekend I’m not gonna lie. I’m pausing myself to take everything in before I speak out of term,” she tweeted. “I just want everyone to know I love ALL members of my GOTG family. Always will.”
Pom Klementieff, who plays the alien empath Mantis was, well, empathetic, with a Twitter video of herself writing in pen, “We are Groot. We are a family. We stand together,” before drawing a little heart.
They join GotG‘s Dave Bautista, who tweeted earlier Sunday that he was “not ok” with Gunn’s firing, and Selma Blair — a powerful voice in the #metoo movement — who praised Gunn’s “talent…decency and…evolution as a man.”
Comic and filmmaker Bobcat Goldthwait also joined the growing chorus of celebrities showing support for Gunn, “suggesting” that Disney to remove his voice from an upcoming Disneyland them park attraction, called called World of Color — Villainous.
In an Instagram post, Goldthwait noted sarcastically that he’d “hate for [Disney] to come off as hypocritical,” explaining that he’s, “made a lot of sarcastically shocking and offensive jokes” and would “hate to make you guys look bad.”
As of Monday night, a Change.org petition calling for Disney to rehire Gunn has collected over 243,000 signatures toward its goal of 300,000.
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