James Gunn Fired Because of Cancel Culture

Makira Davis, Staff Writer

Recently former Marvel director, James Gunn, was hired by Warner Bros and D.C. to write the script for Suicide Squad Two even though, Disney fired James Gunn, last July, from The Guardians of the Galaxy Three due to old tweets of his resurfacing. 

A statement issued by Walt Disney Studios Chairman, Alan Horn, states, “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studios’ values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.”  

Gunn has apologized for outrageous jokes prior to the tweets resurfacing, however, he still received backlash from the internet, with people even praising Disney’s decision. But there were also people who defended James like co-star, Dave Bautista. Many others had even signed a petition to get him rehired. As of right now, Disney has no plans of hiring James again.  

This is not the first time that the internet has seen a situation like this. One example of this would be, Roseanne Barr. Like Gunn, Roseanne also got into trouble because of a racist tweet.  

Roseanne has been seen as a controversial comedian for a while, but many felt that she had crossed a line after she made a tweet about Valerie Jarrett, an African-American senior adviser for President Barack Obama during his presidency. The tweet stated, “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby= vj.” 

Barr had issued an apology but that could not stop her from getting the boot. The executives at ABC and coincidentally its parent company, Disney, decided to cancel the show. With ABC’s entertainment president stating, “Roseanne’s twitter statement abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”  

Both of these instances seem to be the product of cancel culture. If you have ever seen any of the #__isoverparty trending on twitter, then you’re familiar with the idea. The act of cancelling something or someone steams from political correctness. Anything even a little bit offensive is cancelled. We’ve seen things from Nike to Papa Johns be cancelled. 

The effects of being cancelled usually does not last very long but situations with Gunn or Barr sometimes takes on a greater time frame.