“Fuck This”: ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Star Dave Bautista Is Furious Over James Gunn’s Firing
"Pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists cybernazis."
Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista has slammed studio executives over their decision to sack franchise writer-director James Gunn, tweeting that it felt “pretty nauseating” to work for the company after it caved in to “a smear campaign by fascists cybernazis”.
Gunn was removed from the helm of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 by Walt Disney Studios after Mike Cernovich, a prominent alt-right personality, posted screenshots of tweets sent by Gunn between 2008 and 2011 in which the filmmaker joked about paedophelia and rape.
The cast subsequently co-signed an open letter saying they “fully support” Gunn and were “discouraged by those so easily duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories surrounding him.”
But Bautista’s remarks are the strongest we’ve heard so far, with the wrestler-turned-actor going so far as to threaten to quit the film series over the treatment of his friend.
“Nobody’s defending his tweets, but this was a smear campaign on a good man,” Bautista told ShortList. “I spoke to Chris Pratt the day after it happened and he’s a bit religious so he wanted time to pray and figure it out, but I was more like: fuck this. This is bullshit. James is one of the kindest, most decent people I’ve met.”
“Where I’m at right now is that if [Marvel] don’t use [Gunn’s] script, then I’m going to ask them to release me from my contract, cut me out or recast me. I’d be doing James a disservice if I didn’t.”
On Twitter, Bautista said he would do what he was “legally obligated to do”, but insisted that making Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 without Gunn was “not what I signed up for”.
I will do what Im legally obligated to do but @Guardians without @JamesGunn is not what I signed up for. GOTG w/o @JamesGunn just isn’t GOTG. Its also pretty nauseating to work for someone who’d empower a smear campaign by fascists #cybernazis . That’s just how I feel https://t.co/Ym4FwruVDu
— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 5, 2018
Disney has yet to indicate whether it plans to use Gunn’s script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which he submitted prior to being let go. Variety previously reported that the studio was unlikely to rehire the director despite the wishes of the cast — although that was before Bautista made the extent of his displeasure public.