Disney reportedly won't rehire James Gunn despite Guardians of the Galaxy cast support

Efforts to get Disney to reappoint James Gunn as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 have seemingly fallen on deaf ears. According to a new report from Variety, the parent company of Marvel Studios is upholding its decision to fire the filmmaker over old, inappropriate tweets, even after an alleged meeting between Gunn and Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn.

The trade reports Horn took a meeting with Gunn as a “courtesy to clear the air” after the director’s reps at UTA pushed to get him a second chance. Kevin Feige, the head of Marvel Studios, reportedly stands by Disney’s decision.

Reps for Disney, Marvel, and Gunn did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.

Gunn was relieved of his directorial responsibilities at Disney after alt-right conservatives brought back decade-old tweets of Gunn’s that included jokes about pedophilia and sexual assault. Gunn apologized for those tweets both on Twitter and in a statement obtained by EW, calling them “totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative.”

“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,” he said in part.

Not only have Marvel fans rallied around Gunn to petition his reinstatement, but Guardians of the Galaxy stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, Michael Rooker, and Sean Gunn have all thrown their support behind their director in an open letter.

Pratt wrote on Instagram that he would “personally” like to see Gunn rehired. Bautista, meanwhile, said he would fulfill his legal obligations and return for Guardians of the Galaxy 3 — a draft of which Gunn had already written before his firing — but called it “pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists.”

“It’s not an easy time,” Pratt said in a recent interview. “We all love James and he’s a good friend of ours, but we also really love playing the Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s a complicated situation for everybody.”