Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt told the Associated Press that he still stands by social media posts stating that he hopes that director James Gunn will be reinstated nearly a month after Disney severed ties with Gunn. Pratt also spoke to the difficulties he and the cast face following Gunn’s firing.
“It’s not an easy time,” Pratt said. “We all love James and he’s a good friend of ours, but we also really love playing the Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s a complicated situation for everybody. And you know, we just want to move forward and do what’s right and be the best people we can be.”
Gunn was fired in July after far-right personality Mike Cernovich resurfaced several of Gunn’s old tweets, claiming that Gunn was a pedophile based on their content. Many Guardians of the Galaxy cast members — most prominently, Dave Bautista (Drax) — have spoken out against his firing since. Bautista tweeted that Guardians of the Galaxy without Gunn is “not what [he] signed up for.”
Pratt told AP that it was shocking to hear news of Gunn’s firing during Comic-Con.
“I love going to Comic-Con but I ended up not doing a lot of interviews around that time just because it was so shocking,” he said. “All I know is we put a lot of time, thought and effort into the statement that we released about it. And I think we all kind of want that statement to be essentially what we have to say about it. And we were pretty clear and honest about how we feel.”
Pratt is referencing a joint statement posted on Instagram that expressed the support of Gunn, encouraging other people to learn from the incident. The letter was signed by Pratt and other cast members including Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Bautista and Vin Diesel.
It’s still not clear whether or not there’s a possibility of Gunn being reinstated for the third Guardians of the Galaxy film.