On Monday, a billboard calling for James Gunn to be rehired as director of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” went up just four miles away from Disneyland. The ad was paid for by a fan-created crowdfunding campaign that has raised just under $5,000 since September.
Reading “Save the Galaxy: James Gunn for Vol. 3,” the digital sign, which went up Monday in in Garden Grove, California, directs people to the campaign’s website, www.rehirejamesgunn.com. It’s visible from the 22 Eastbound Freeway before the Harbor Blvd. exit, and several fans have posted their own photos of it on the group’s GoFundMe page. An image of the billboard is above.
On the campaign’s GoFundMe page, organizers are seeking to raise $12,000 total to put billboards near both Disneyland and Walt Disney World for at least one month “preferably during the holidays to maximize exposure.”
Gunn directed 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” and its 2017 sequel, but was fired in July after far-right media personality Mark Cernovich and his followers publicized offensive tweets and writings from nearly a decade earlier. Those comments had previously come to light in 2012, just after Gunn was hired to direct the first “Guardians” film, and Gunn apologized for them at the time. He apologized again after he was fired, and said he accepted Disney’s decision.
Many fans have called for Disney to reverse its decision. Those calls were echoed by members of the cast, who eventually published a joint open-letter saying in part: “In casting each of us to help him tell the story of misfits who find redemption, he changed our lives forever. We believe the theme of redemption has never been more relevant than now.”
Disney stood by its decision, however, and Gunn has most recently been in talks to write and possibly direct a sequel to “Suicide Squad” for Warner Bros.
Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.