Production of Marvel’s third Guardian of the Galaxy film has been suspended following the firing of the franchise’s disgraced director James Gunn.

According to Deadline, the “small crew that was assembled for pre-production in Atlanta, GA on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 have been dismissed in the wake of James Gunn’s firing,” while “the threequel is on a temporary hold as the studio searches for another director on the project which Gunn scripted.”

The decision comes over a month after Gunn was fired from the franchise after the resurfacing of disturbing tweets where the 51-year-old director made jokes about child rape, pedophilia, and the Holocaust.

Gunn’s firing immediately sparked an outcry among fans and Hollywood activists, who organized petitions demanding that Disney give him his job back. Gunn even received public backing from the film’s cast, who wrote an open letter to the company declaring that the media had been “duped into believing the many outlandish conspiracy theories surrounding him.”

Since his firing, other questions have arisen over Gunn’s dubious behavior. Gunn is known to have had a relationship with Huston Huddleston, a man convicted for possession of child pornography. It also emerged that Gunn’s personal blog, which he took down soon after the scandal broke, featured a YouTube video entitled “100 Pubescent Girls Touch Themselves.”

Earlier this month, photos also emerged of Gunn attending a pedophilia-themed party dubbed “To Catch a Predator,” where he is seen dressed as a Catholic priest alongside two women dressed to look like underage girls.

I wish I never defended James Gunn. pic.twitter.com/GdoG4daK8D — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 11, 2018

Last week, it was reported that despite mounting pressure and a meeting between Gunn and studio chairman Alan Horn, Disney would stick by their decision to cut ties with James Gunn. According to Variety, the company deemed his comments “unacceptable in the Me Too era and were not in line with Disney’s family-friendly image.”

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.