Screen Rant reports that an online petition calling on Disney to re-hire ousted Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 director James Gunn has received over 65,000 signatures. Gunn was dropped by Disney on Friday. This after years-old offensive tweets by the writer-director resurfaced online amid his feud with conservative social media personality Mike Cernovich. Gunn quickly released his own statement apologizing for the tweets and taking responsibility for his words. He insisted they were meant to be humorous and provocative.
In the wake of Disney's swift move to fire Gunn, many of the director's colleagues have come to his defense. Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista was one of the earliest and most vocal defenders of Gunn. He said he is "not OK" with the action taken by Disney. Gunn's brother Sean Gunn, who appears in the Guardians movies as the on-set stand-in for Rocket Raccoon, also came out in vehement defense of the ousted director.