In a remarkable piece of chutzpah today, the entire cast of Marvel/Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy films have released a joint statement in defence of director, James Gunn, recently fired from his position as a result of a concerted campaign by cybernazis.

Here’s the full letter, citing a petition to reinstate Gunn:

It’s wonderful to see these actors backing their director, and while I don’t often bring politics onto this site, for once I’ll make an exception (because Gunn is someone whose work and public face I’ve personally admired for many years).

Gunn made a whole bunch of tweets that were undeniably in poor taste. But that’s all they were, jokes that some people find distasteful. Since making them he has very publicly apologised – twice, in fact – making a very heartfelt and eloquent case for his growth as a person who would no longer make those same jokes. In short, he owned the immaturity of his younger self. Would that we were all so self-aware.

When Disney hired Gunn to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy, they did so in full recognition of who they were bringing into the fold, in fact you might say they brought him in partly because of his far left-field humour.

The people who targeted Gunn’s past off-kilter humour did so because the director has become a highly vocal and highly visible critic of their right wing politics. They’re not stupid, they know Gunn wasn’t advocating the subjects he was making bad jokes about. They’ve targeted him in order to silence what he says now, not what he said a decade ago.

Disney and Marvel have made a very shitty move in firing Gunn under pressure from these cyber-bullies. It sets a terrible precedent that cannot be seen as anything than deeply troubling.

I don’t know if this show of support from Gunn’s cast will make a difference to one of the world’s biggest conglomerates, but if nothing else it shows that Gunn deserves support from more of us.