Guardians of the Galaxy 3 director James Gunn fired over offensive tweets

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 director James Gunn is no longer involved with the movie after controversial tweets were found on his Twitter account. The tweets, which were published years ago and since deleted, include crude jokes and statements about pedophilia, rape, and more. Gunn was dropped by Disney after copies of his tweets were shared across Twitter.

Gunn has been vocal in his criticism of President Trump. In tweets published earlier today, conservative personalities tweeted more than a dozen screenshots of tweets published by Gunn several years ago. Each tweet, which were first surfaced by The Daily Caller, contain crude to offensive content often centered around pedophilia.

Following the revelation, Disney released a statement denouncing Gunn's tweets, calling them "indefensible and inconsistent" with its values. Disney has officially cut ties with Gunn and fired him from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3's directing role.

Gunn has since offered his own explanation for the content, doing so in a multi-tweet statement. "Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur," Gunn said, "making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo."

Gunn also states that he is "very, very different" than he was when those tweets were published, working to root his "work in love and connection and less in anger." He also clarifies, "For the record, when I made these shocking jokes, I wasn't living them out."

SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter