‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Fans Launch Petition to Get James Gunn Rehired

A petition aimed at Disney to rehire fired fir director James Gunn exceeded its 15,000 signature goal in its first 24 hours online.

The petition, launched by Chandler Edwards on change.org, hopes to "get Disney to realize the mistake they made and not do it again in the future."

"I agree on the point that if people say a bunch of stupid shit while working for a studio, the studio has full right to fire him over the possible controversy. This situation is very different though as he made these jokes years before he was working for Disney and also the fact that they were jokes," Edwards writes, calling Gunn's tweets "a bad attempt at being funny."

Gunn was fired Friday after tweets, some a decade old, resurfaced and gained mainstream media attention. In the tweets, Gunn published multiple comments referencing and making light of pedophilia, child molestation, rape, and other abuses.

Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn quickly chastised Gunn's social media history, calling the "offensive attitudes and statements" in Gunn's Twitter feed "indefensible and inconsistent with our studio's values." Horn announced Disney, who owns Guardians of the Galaxy producers Marvel Studios, officially severed their business relationship with Gunn.

Texas senator Ted Cruz took to Twitter Saturday calling Gunn's tweets "horrible." He added, "I'm glad Disney fired him, but if these tweets are true, he needs to be prosecuted."

Gunn has since been defended by his brother, actor Sean Gunn, who portrays Kraglin in the Guardians franchise and provides the on-set motion capture for Rocket Raccoon. Other celebrities, including Drax star Dave Bautista, Ant-Man star David Destmalchian, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Patton Oswalt, also came to Gunn's defense on social media.

Marvel Studios and chief Kevin Feige have yet to publicly comment on the controversy.

After reaching its initial 15,000 signature goal, the petition has since bumped up its goal to earning the signatures of 25,000 supporters.