Disney fired Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn back in July 2018 after years-old tweets of his resurfaced and caused some outrage.
Gunn took full responsibility and accepted the consequences, but in a surprising turn of events, he was rehired again this March. Now, he's finally speaking for the first time about the decision and what it's meant to him.
"I don’t blame anyone. I feel and have felt bad for a while about some of the ways I spoke publicly; some of the jokes I made, some of the targets of my humor, just the unintentional consequences of not being more compassionate in what I’m putting out there. I know that people have been hurt by things that I’ve said, and that’s still my responsibility, that I wasn’t as compassionate as I should be in what I say. I feel bad for that and take full responsibility. Disney totally had the right to fire me."
Gunn said he was angry with himself in the wake of his firing, because he knew only he was responsible for the things he'd said in the past. But he eventually let go of that anger in order to move on.
"There’s a lot of really positive stuff that’s coming out of all of this, and one of those positives is I was able to learn. People have to be able to learn from mistakes. If we take away the possibility for someone to learn and become a better person, I’m not sure what we are left with. I’ve learned all kinds of things about myself through this process."
In the time before his rehiring, he had signed a deal with Marvel rival DC to direct The Suicide Squad. As a result, he'll be finishing up that movie first before moving on with Guardians of The Galaxy 3.
(via Deadline)