Updated 5:12 p.m. EST with Gunn's statement.

Guardians of the Galaxy franchise director James Gunn has been fired in light of tweets from his past, THR reported Friday afternoon.

"The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him," said Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

Though the statement does not specify the contents of Gunn's tweets, other users have screenshots that may point in the right direction:

According to THR, Gunn's tweets were found by conservative Twitter users, possibly in retaliation for his recent tweets against Donald Trump.

"Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo," Gunn said in a series of tweets. "As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor."

Gunn was ostensibly scrubbing his own Twitter clean Thursday evening when he accidentally tweeted out a search for his own tweets.

Gunn issued an official statement in response:

My words of nearly a decade ago were, at the time, totally failed and unfortunate efforts to be provocative. I have regretted them for many years since — not just because they were stupid, not at all funny, wildly insensitive, and certainly not provocative like I had hoped, but also because they don't reflect the person I am today or have been for some time.”





“Regardless of how much time has passed, I understand and accept the business decisions taken today. Even these many years later, I take full responsibility for the way I conducted myself then. All I can do now, beyond offering my sincere and heartfelt regret, is to be the best human being I can be: accepting, understanding, committed to equality, and far more thoughtful about my public statements and my obligations to our public discourse. To everyone inside my industry and beyond, I again offer my deepest apologies. Love to all.







