The world of fandom was disrupted in a major way last month when James Gunn was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for a series of offensive tweets that he posted years ago. Following that move by Marvel Studios, many fans and insiders have flocked to the web to support Gunn, including his principal cast from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Now, Chris Pratt has addressed the firing of Gunn, noting that his friendship with Gunn and his love of the franchise makes this a complicated situation. Pratt explained his feelings further, noting,
It's not an easy time. We all love James and he's a good friend of ours, but we also really love playing the Guardians of the Galaxy. It's a complicated situation for everybody. And you know, we just want to move forward and do what's right and be the best people we can be.
That obviously makes quite a bit of sense. Though the entire cast of Guardians of the Galaxy has come out in support of James Gunn, Chris Pratt notes he is also incredibly passionate about the franchise and his role in it. Chris Pratt seems supportive of Gunn and genuinely upset about what has happened, and now one of the primary goals is to find a way to move forward and make the franchise work in its third installment.
Aside from these remarks, Chris Pratt has remained fairly silent on the James Gunn matter in interviews over the course of the last few weeks. In fact, Pratt elaborated on his comments to The Associated Press (via Star Tribune) and noted that he intentionally didn't do many interviews at San Diego Comic-Con and said most of what he needed to say in the recent statement released by the Guardians cast. Pratt said:
I love going to Comic-Con but I ended up not doing a lot of interviews around that time just because it was so shocking. All I know is we put a lot of time, thought and effort into the statement that we released about it. And I think we all kind of want that statement to be essentially what we have to say about it. And we were pretty clear and honest about how we feel.
On top of all of that, Chris Pratt has also used his platform to suggest that Gunn should be reinstated as the director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. You can check out his earlier post on the matter, below.
With all of that said, we're now left in a position where we have to wait and see what will become of James Gunn in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Though some reports have stated that Gunn won't be rehired for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, other rumors have suggested that the folks at Marvel Studios are pushing Disney to do just that and bring him back. For now, however, the project (which is aiming for a 2020 release) remains director-less.
Only time will tell what will ultimately happen with James Gunn, Marvel Studios, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Until we learn more about what the studio plans to do, you can still catch The Guardians of the Galaxy in Avengers: Infinity War, which is currently in theaters, and you can find the rest of Earth's mightiest heroes in the final Phase 3 adventure next year when Avengers 4 premieres on May 3, 2019.
