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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
James Gunn will be fine. He will soon work on another project for another Studio. Just not for Disney, at least not in such a highly prolific position.
I am actually not sure who can replace him though. Taiko Waititi is lacking the gravitas you would need to truly push the Cosmic side through. His sensibilities are fine of the occasional movie, but not for every single movie which just happens to be set in space. For example, I really, really can't imagine him doing Silver Surfer or Fantastic 4.
I should really get back to Cloak and Dagger. I didn't know the season was over already. Either there weren't that many episodes or the season went by without any breaks.
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!That depends. Which would you say is worse: pedophilia or spousal abuse?
I know how people who run a magical kingdom meant to capture a child's imagination would answer that question.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Okay...let's address the whatsaboutism here… First of all Depp: When Disney initially hired him it was during the time when it looked as if he had left his "wild years" behind him. And the whole matter about him being a wife beater are frankly mostly a private matter. It is overall a "he said/she said" story and he never got charged with anything - and to be clear here, I am not saying that he didn't do it, it is actually pretty likely that he did relapse, but he was also married to other women beforehand, and there have never been any allegations from his prior wives, nor is there any indication of him having a history of hitting women. A history of being drunk and destroying hotel rooms, yes, but nothing of this scale. So in the end you have a very messy divorce. Nothing about this is great and in disney's place I would have stopped the Pot C movies years ago, but "there are reasons to believe that he hit his wife but it is also possible that she is playing up what happened to get a better agreement in the divorce" is very different from "he advocated in public that hitting your wife is an okay thing to do" or "his wife ended up in the hospital because of him". I am sure that more than one employee of Disney is currently in a messy divorce in which similar allegations are thrown around.
The Lassiter: Honestly, I have no idea how this could go on for so long and I also have no idea if Disney deliberately looked in the other direction of if this was a case of Lassiter having so much power that nobody really spoke up until "me too" happened. But after his behaviour got public, the situation was very different to the situation with James Gunn in that Disney couldn't simply fire him. Lassiter is not just an employee of Disney, he is the founder of Pixar and the merger gave him a number of rights in the company. So they send him on holiday and then arranged his removal as soon as possible.
In the end, those are all different situations. And, frankly, I think James Gunn would have walked away unscathed after an apology if it had been a few sexist or off-colour jokes...hell, I know that this is the case, because that's what happened a few years ago. But he joked about the one thing you should never joke about. And frankly, if he is really ashamed for the jokes now, why didn't he delete them years ago? Why leaving them on the internet, where everyone can stumble over them?
That's a very good question.
Erasing them would have been a very good idea for multiple reason (his own sake, and also because that kind of thing should be erased from existence).
One Strip! One Strip!Nope.
Like I said, actions have consequences. Nobody's calling for James Gunn to be put in prison. What Disney has done is to say, "You are at best a person who finds pedophilic sexual assault to be funny and at worst a pedophile. You don't get to work in my magical wonderland for children."
And that is entirely reasonable.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.![]()
Even criminals get eventually a second chance. So...what do we think is the probation period for joking about child rape?
I would say he will be hired by another studio by next year. If he will ever work for Disney again, that frankly depends on if other allegation pop up again.
Edited by Swanpride on Jul 21st 2018 at 10:41:53 AM
Like. If a Secret Service member was caught talking about how cool it would be to murder the President. He would not be a Secret Service member any longer.
Even if the conversation happened years ago.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jul 21st 2018 at 11:44:23 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I would call that semi-officially. First, because it demonstrates that they're paying attention to the rest of the universe, but does not demonstrate that the universe is paying attention to them.
Second, because even if they do get that acknowledgment from the Netflix shows down the road, they're still tucked in their own little corner of canon where the films couldn't give half a shit that they exist. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that Spider-Man: Homecoming made the Judas Bullet look like overpriced trash.
Which, in fairness, it kinda was. The thing has two jobs and it only ever does one, seemingly at random.
Edited by TobiasDrake on Jul 21st 2018 at 11:51:42 AM
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.I would be fine with the explanation that this Gunn fiasco was just Disney shooing out an employee for gross comments like they would any other, nothing out of the ordinary... were it not that all this was already known about Gunn. Gunn was already very reputed as having been an off-color writer all over the Internet. Heck, it's probably what he was hired in the first place; the Guardians movies are the most openly sexual-humored films in the MCU.
Either nobody in Disney's massive PR team took a scroll through Gunn's public Twitter feed, or they didn't care until Cernovich swirled up a social media campaign. And the latter is the most troubling in its implications. both that Disney would ignore pedophilia jokes until now, and that they would defer to a known conspirator and violence instigator.
So it's like hiring a Secret Service guy because he made jokes about killing the President, a whole decade passing in between, and then firing the guy when another nation raises a stink about it and you want to look good to them.
Edited by Tuckerscreator on Jul 21st 2018 at 11:08:09 AM
Even if you don't give two shits about Gunn, it sets a horrible precedent. That kind of hate machine turning its wheels towards someone who isn't rich and respected is a horrifying thought, and Disney just gave it a lot of forward momentum.
You are not alone.

Wait that hasn’t happened already?
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."