Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn made a statement today.
He said: “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.”
The shock announcement means Gunn is no longer working on Guardians of The Galaxy 3, which he was writing when the scandal broke.
Marvel fans will be left reeling and wondering what will happen now to the hugely successful franchise. There seems to be no way Gunn can return to Disney after making comments about children, oral sex and having sex with babies.
The story has been building behind the scenes after a conservative website The Daily Caller discovered the sensitive and shocking content of the tweets which mainly date from 2009 to 2012.
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Conservative enemies of those they perceive as Hollywood liberals seized the opportunity presented by San Diego Comic-Con, urging their followers to confront the director publicly.
This is the major US science fiction and comicbook expo of the year and Gunn was due to appear. Although Marvel have no official presence there this year, Gunn had teased he is part of the Sony presentation for a mystery project.
Gunn had already attempted to diffuse the situation, deleting his tweets and making his own statement.
Gunn said: “Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo. As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor…
“For the record, when I made these shocking jokes, I wasn’t living them out. I know this is a weird statement to make, and seems obvious, but, still, here I am, saying it…
“Anyway, that’s the completely honest truth: I used to make a lot of offensive jokes. I don’t anymore. I don’t blame my past self for this, but I like myself more and feel like a more full human being and creator today. Love you to you all.
However, the content of the tweets is so graphic and shocking, it is hard to see how any explanation or apology can rectify the situation.
WARNING: SENSITIVE AND SHOCKING LANGUAGE AND THEMES
The tweets are numerous and all extraordinarily graphic and inappropriate.
As well as the comments above there are other like the one which plays on the title of a famous family film but says: “Three Men and the Baby They Tried To Have Sex With.”
Others say: “I like it when little boys touch me in my silly place”, “‘Eagle snatches kid’ is what I call it when I get lucky,” and “The Expendables was so manly I f***ed the sh** out of the pussy boy next to me.”
Marvel fans will now have an anxious wait to see who will take over the final Guardians movie.