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Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Dave Bautista Talks About Why He Defended James Gunn


There was a whole lot of controversy when Disney decided to fire Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn because of a smear campaign that brought to light offensive and inappropriate tweets made 14 years in the past. While some felt like the Mickey Mouse House did the right thing, many were outraged by Disney's decision knowing that Gunn had long since apologized for the tweets and has changed since then.

Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista was one of those who stood by the filmmaker's side once the controversy erupted and now the actor reaffirms his position, saying that there was no option but to defend Gunn.

Speaking in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Bautista admitted that Gunn made a few "gross" and "terrible jokes" for "shock value..but at the end of the day, the thing I know the most, is that they were jokes, and this harsh, rash decision to fire him empowered some horrible, horrible people."

Bautista is referring to the right-wing extremists Jack Posobiec and Jack Cernovich who had dredged Gunn's tweets and turned them into a smear campaign after running into a political bout with the filmmaker on Twitter.

After standing up for Gunn, Bautista was attacked by supporters of these self-identified right-trolls.

"It was draining," Bautista admitted. "But if I'm not the guy who defends my friends, who am I?"

While it seems unlikely that Disney might hire Gunn back for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the studio has decided to keep working with the script the filmmaker wrote for the film, preserving the director's vision for the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy.

Bautista is set to appear in Avengers: Endgame which premieres on April 26, 2019.

Read: Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige Reminds Fans That No Character Is Invulnerable

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