In a shocking news to all Marvel fans, Walt Disney Pictures decided to fire director James Gunn, after some past offensive tweets of his surfaced recently. James Gunn, known for directing Guardians of the Galaxy series, had been a staunch opposer of the US President Donald Trump and has been regularly calling out Trump's history and actions in his tweets. This, in turn, made some of the President's supporters bring out Gunn's old tweets from the past decade, where he had made jokes about paedophilia and rape.

The director, while accepting the decision of being fired, had apologised for his old tweets but he confessed he was a provocateur in the past and he has changed himself a lot over the years. While the decision of firing him is still upheld by the studios, many of the fans and one of his Guardians of the Galaxy star has come out in defence of Gunn and called out Disney for acting rashly.

Former WWE star Dave Bautista, who plays Drax in GOTG, was the most forthcoming among the cast in his support for James Gunn. This is what he tweeted,

His other co-stars, Zoe Saldanha (Gamora) and Chris Pratt (Star-Lord) played safe in their tweets -

However, actress Selma Blair urged fans to sign a petition asking Marvel to re-hire Gunn.

The fans went one step ahead and reminded the studios that they had hired Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, even though his past is not so clean (he is over that, hence all is forgiven and we love him!). Some also reminded Marvel that their country's president continues to remain Trump, despite the controversial statements he had made in past, and still continues to make.

This fan even reminded them of their founder's checkered past

Taking a cue out of Frozen's song, 'Let it go'!

Ah, the Trump joke!

Disney, why so inconsistent in hiring and firing?

Errr...this is embarrassing!

Another Trump reference

Why didn't Disney do a BG check? Or did they?

Well, Disney can't be blamed for jumping the 'Gunn' (pardon the pun) and finding offence in the director's past misdemeanours, 'cos some of those tweets were in really bad taste. But since James Gunn has changed over the years and the fact that he hasn't caused anyone bodily harm, wouldn't it be prudent for the studios to make him issue a written apology instead of firing him?

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 23, 2018 05:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).