Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista calls working for Disney ‘nauseating’ after James Gunn firing
The actor accused Disney of ‘empowering a fascist smear campaign’ against the director
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Your support makes all the difference.Dave Bautista has hit out at Disney following reports it won't be reinstating James Gunn as Guardians of the Galaxy director despite an open letter signed by all of its lead cast “supporting” the filmmaker.
The actor, who has played Drax the Destroyer across three Marvel films including Avengers: Infinity War, was one of the first cast members to speak out against the studio who fired Gunn after offensive tweets he wrote up to a decade ago were unearthed by an alt-right website.
Bautista, when asked what he'd do should Gunn fail to be reinstated as director of the forthcoming third Guardians film, said: “I will do what I'm legally obligated to do but @Guardians without @JamesGunn is not what I signed up for. GOTG w/o @JamesGunn just isn’t GOTG."
He added: “It's also pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis. That’s just how I feel.”
Walt Disney Studios has faced a huge backlash in the wake of its decision to let Gunn go after an alt-right site unearthed controversial tweets he made joking about paedophilia and rape. Gunn has long been critical of Donald Trump. Recent reports state there are no plans to re-hire him as director.
Bosses announced they had - somewhat hypocritically - “severed” its ties with Gunn as his comments were “indefensible and inconsistent” with its values.
Gunn previously apologised for the ill-judged tweets ahead of his employment by Disney for the first Guardians of the Galaxy back in 2012. Despite this, Disney claims it had no idea they existed and only learned about them when they recirculated.
His Guardians cast, including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Michael Rooker, pledged their “full support” of Gunn, but Disney is said to be standing its ground.
There has been no word on who could replace James Gunn, though many are calling upon Disney to hire a female director in his place.
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