Guardians of the Galaxy star quits Twitter after James Gunn firing

James Hibberd
Updated

Guardians of the Galaxy cast members are having varied online reactions in the wake of writer-director James Gunn’s firing from Disney, but one has opted to quit the social media platform altogether.

Michael Rooker, who played outlaw Yondu Udonta in the first two films in the franchise, announced in an angry sounding post on Twitter he was leaving the platform. Gunn was fired by Disney last week after he became the target of a right-wing online campaign to oust the director over obscene decade-old deleted tweets. Rooker doesn’t specifically cite Gunn’s firing in his exit post but recent events have fans assuming that’s the reason (plus, Rooker’s Twitter profile photo is the actor posing with Gunn).

“This account will be inactive after today,” Rooker wrote. “We’re very tired & upset over the ongoing BULLS–T… neither I nor my rep will use Twitter again. Twitter sucks and I want nothing to do with it. Thank you to all who gave kind words & support. See you on Instagram.”

Guardians star Zoe Saldana (Gamora) also took to Twitter to post a message that’s assumed to be a reflection on the furor surrounding Gunn’s dismissal:

And star Chris Pratt (Star-Lord) cited this Bible quote:

Meanwhile, fans have started an online petition urging Disney to re-hire the director with 170,000 signatures as of Monday morning.

“If you do this to Gunn you have to do it for all the other directors who have said some crappy joke sometime in their life, which is all of them, cause I doubt there’s one human on this planet who hasn’t made a sh—y joke once or twice in their life,” reads the petition.

Actress Selma Blair urged fans to sign the petition and noted, “if people are punished despite changing, then what does that teach people about owning mistakes and evolving? This man is one of the good ones.”

Dave Bautista (Drax) was from the Guardians crew to first to post outrage about the firing last week:

While Sean Gunn (who plays Kraglin in the Guardians films and does the on-set physical performance of Rocket Raccoon), also shared a message supporting his brother:

It goes without saying that I love and support my brother James and I’m quite proud of how kind, generous, and compassionate he is with all the people in his life. Since he was a kid, it was clear he had a desire (maybe destiny) to be an artist, tell stories, find his voice through comics, films, his band. The struggle to find that voice was sometimes clunky, misguided, or downright stupid, and sometimes wonderful, moving, and hilarious. Since devoting his entire life to the Guardians movies and MCU six years ago, I’ve seen him channel that voice into his work and seen him transform from the guy who made up things to shock people. I saw firsthand as he went from worrying about “softening his edge” for a larger audience to realizing that this “edge” wasn’t as useful of a tool as he thought it was. That his gift for storytelling was something better. I saw that he was more open-hearted than the guy who thought he needed to get a rise out of people by making nasty or offensive jokes (or whatever you choose to call them—I don’t think his bluer material was ever his funniest and neither does Mom). And the best part is, this change in my brother was reflected in the change that the Guardians go through. I’ve heard my brother say many times that when Quill rallies the team with “this is our chance to give a shit”—to care—that it’s the pep talk he himself needed to hear. It’s part of what made working on the Guardians movies such a rewarding experience for the cast. We managed to find ourselves involved in a big-budget superhero movie that was, at its core, deeply personal. That’s a gift. And that’s why it’s good. This isn’t new information, by the way. It’s all stuff that James has explained many times in interviews, in more detail and more eloquently. It’s not some new spin. It’s always been part of this story. So I guess my hope is that fans continue to watch and appreciate the Guardians movies, not despite the fact that the filmmaker used to be kind of a jackass, but because of it. They are, after all, movies about discovering your best self. Working on those movies made my brother a better person, and they made me one too. I’ll always be proud of that. Peace.

A post shared by Sean Gunn (@thejudgegunn) on Jul 21, 2018 at 3:47pm PDT

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