GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY writer/director James Gunn is just about fed up with all the toxic Star Wars fans out there. Many of the more aggressive fans have been attacking people involved with the recent movies, especially LAST JEDI director Rian Johnson and star Kelly Marie Tran, with the latter leaving social media altogether after experiencing tremendous online abuse. Now Gunn has come out with a personal message to all of the Star Wars trolls out there, saying they all need to calm down, and should perhaps even seek therapy.
This all came after actor Ahmed Best took to social media to say he contemplated suicide after receiving immense backlash from fans for playing Jar Jar Binks in the series. Gunn posted one of the news stories about Best’s post, saying fans need to “chill out.” He followed that up with a post responding to commenters saying that Best didn’t deserve that hate, but rather writer/director George Lucas instead. Gunn said this misses the point entirely, saying that no one deserves to be attacked for simply doing their job and trying to create art.
People responding to this post saying, ‘Yeah, it wasn’t the actor’s fault! It was the writer’s!’ are missing the point. Critique it. Don’t like it. But spewing hate and bile at individuals just doing their best to tell a story, even if the story sucks, is lame. Don’t watch it!
He then addressed toxic Star Wars fans directly in a third post, saying, “Star Wars’ (or any movie) may be important to you, but it doesn’t belong to you. If your self-esteem depends on how good you think the current ‘Star Wars’ is, or your childhood is ruined because you don’t like something in a movie, GO TO THERAPY.”
This all comes in the wake of an online movement by some Star Wars fans who are trying to do a remake of THE LAST JEDI after feeling Johnson attacked them personally with his movie. Gunn responded to that, saying, "I will gladly spend that 300 million on a movie that’s not remaking a movie from a year ago. Call me!"
Gunn has recently turned in his first draft of GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.3 and will begin working on the movie for a planned 2020 release. His words are ones fans of Star Wars who have taken to social media to harass the cast and crew should really absorb. Feel free to dislike the movie all you want, but attacking those who made it is downright cruel and, yes, should make you question your mental state. Or, I suggest they perhaps give Star Wars a break and jump into a new franchise. I hear those FAST AND FURIOUS movies are just the bees knees.