After keeping silent over the weekend, the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy have finally responded to the controversy surrounding their director James Gunn. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few days, offensive Tweets the filmmaker posted years ago resurfaced, causing a social media storm that led to Disney firing him with immediate effect, leaving Guardians Vol. 3 without a director.
Drax the Destroyer himself, Dave Bautista, was quick to respond, making it clear that he stood by his good friend Gunn on the matter by lambasting the “cybernazis” who got him fired. The rest of the primary members of the cast soon followed but, it has to be said, gave much more measured thoughts on the situation. The most oblique was Chris Pratt’s, who shared a bible verse that talks about the virtues of being slow to anger but quick to listen.
Pom Klementieff, who’s played Mantis in both Vol. 2 and Avengers: Infinity War, is the final one to make her feelings known on the matter. In contrast to the simple Tweets posted by her colleagues, the actress decided to go for something more elaborate by filming herself writing a handwritten message. It read: “We are Groot. We are family. We stand together.”
Klementieff’s response to Gunn’s firing is very much in line with what her co-stars Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan have said. All three actresses have emphasized the fact that the Guardians team are a family. That was the core of the latter two stars’ comments, but Klementieff goes one step further as well by saying that “we stand together.” That makes it clear that she, like Bautista, is in support of Gunn.
Of course, the Guardians of the Galaxy cast aren’t the only ones who support the director. At the time of writing, a petition calling for Disney and Marvel to rehire him has reached an impressive 200,000 signatures. At present, though, Gunn’s been removed from the upcoming threequel and we’re still waiting on an official statement from the studio. Once we get one, we’ll be sure to let you know.