Walt Disney Studios announced on Friday that it is severing its business relationship with James Gunn as old tweets by the director resurfaced containing jokes about controversial topics.
Gunn has been an outspoken critic of President Trump for some time, and now old tweets by the director have resurfaced dealing with taboo topics such as rape and pedophilia. In the fallout of the revelations, Disney has severed all ties with the director.
Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn issued a statement saying, “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.”
Gunn stated on his Twitter account, “Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor.”
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was set to be Gunn’s next project for Disney with filming set to begin this fall with a 2020 release date. Following that project he was to take on duties of shaping the cosmic side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Correction: A previous version of this story indicated James Gunn had deleted his Twitter account. It has been corrected to indicate that the account is live.
