On July 20, Disney sacked James Gunn as director of the film "The Guardians of Galaxy 3," writes Entertainment Weekly. The decision was made after the old Tweets surfaced on the Web, where he admits ambiguous statements about the deadly sick people, pedophilia and jokes on other similar topics, to which society is particularly sensitive. Most of these posts for several years: for example, a tweet with the text "Laughter is the best medicine. Therefore, I laugh at AIDS patients "is dated back in 2010. But a few days ago he - along with dozens of similar records - was again in the spotlight.

The first to distribute the old publications of the director were users who are associated with the movement of "alternative right". After the tweets of Gunn began to gain viral popularity, the Disney studio announced his dismissal. "Offensive statements found on James's Twitter account can not be justified. They do not coincide in any way with our values, that's why we stop business relations with him, "- noted in the company Disney.

Even after his dismissal, Gann issued a statement in which he acknowledged his mistakes and apologized: "My words, which I said more than ten years ago, were very unsuccessful attempts at provocation. After a while, I regretted them - not only because it's stupid and unhappy, but because such statements do not completely reflect the person I am today. I take the decision of Disney. Even after many years, I'm ready to take full responsibility for what has been said ".

The opinions of Internet users about the situation are divided. Some of them considered Gunn's dismissal a correct step, others stood up for the director's defense. They note that for his controversial statements he apologized back in 2012 and again make a scandal out of it - wrong. Defenders of the director also draw attention to the fact that a wave of criticism against him rose from the filing of ultra-right activists and, criticizing Gunn, users go on about them.

In addition, the supporters of the director launched an online petition, which urged Disney to cancel its decision and restore Gunn as director.

By that time, more than 180,000 people had subscribed to the petition.

Although many actors and colleagues of the director refrain from commenting on the situation, some still decided to openly support Gunn. Among them - Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Dave Batista. The latter, among other things, called the scandal "a successful attack by cybernatsists". "If we do not start to unite against this shit - no matter if someone is insulted or not, everything will only get worse. This can happen to everyone, "said Batista.