On Monday, the cast of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise released a statement of support for James Gunn. Now the director is getting support from a somewhat surprising figure — controversial YouTube star Logan Paul.
Paul shared the cast’s message to his own Twitter yesterday evening, pulling out one specific line to highlight for his followers.
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“We believe the theme of redemption has never been more relevant than now,” is the line Paul quoted, adding the “raising hands” emoji.
It’s an interesting choice of quote for Paul to pull from the overall statement made by the Guardians cast, especially when one considers the YouTuber’s own recent controversy. As many may recall, earlier this year Paul became the subject of controversy when the vlogger uploaded a video that showed he and his friends traveling to Japan, specifically to the Aokigahara forest. Paul and his friends went into the forest — commonly referred to as the Suicide Forest — and proceeded to film their discovery of a deceased person as well as use their image as the video’s thumbnail.
Paul briefly stepped away from the video platform and was even yanked from the Google Preferred advertising program over the video. He has since returned to posting vlogs to his channel but remains a polarizing figure. When it was confirmed that Paul is dating Agents of SHIELD star Chloe Bennet earlier this month, fans had some strong reactions with many of them being negative or surprised by the relationship. With all of that in mind, Paul’s use of that specific quote about redemption from the Guardians statement could be interpreted as Paul saying that it applies to him as well. It’s how many who replied to his post took the quote with some directly telling the Paul that calls for redemption “don’t apply” to him.
Redemption may well end up applying to Gunn, though. A new report from Variety today suggested that Disney could be looking to reinstate Gunn on Guardians 3. According to Variety, “sources say there has been a growing feeling that Gunn could be reinstated, especially because Marvel and Disney have been unusually radio-silent on who could replace him since the firing.”
Since Gunn’s firing after offensive tweets from nearly a decade ago surfaced online, many have spoken out in support of Gunn, including several other directors and actors in the industry. Fans have also taken up the cause with more than 300,000 signing a petition to for Disney to reinstate the director.
What do you think about Logan Paul sharing the statement of support for James Gunn? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.