When Disney fired writer-director James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, due to some old offensive tweets, dug up by right-wing pundit Mike Cernovich, we figured a backlash might happen. Disney had to protect its family-friendly image, Gunn's tweets were far from innocent, so the decision to oust the writer-director wasn't surprising. What's actually surprising is the way the 'Guardians' cast has reacted to the firing, including the release of a statement in support of Gunn. The statement basically read as "yes, we know his tweets were wrong, but Gunn is a good guy and has grown as an individual since then."
The cast begging Disney to reinstate Gunn seems to have not worked at all, with Disney reportedly shutting down the idea of rehiring Gunn.
However, taking the whole megillah for sheer chutzpah is Dave Bautista. The 49-year-old actor, who plays the scene-stealing Drax in 'Guardians', had originally tweeted that Gunn was set-up by a 'Cyber-Nazi', probably referring to Cernovich, and that the director should be rehired. Today Bautista doubled-down on previous comments and, possibly, just got on Disney's bad side with a Tweet that will no doubt have people talking:
"I will do what Im legally obligated to do but @Guardians without @JamesGunn is not what I signed up for. GOTG w/o @JamesGunn just isn’t GOTG. Its also pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis . That’s just how I feel."