Guardians Of The Galaxy Director James Gunn has taken to Twitter to defend Chris Pratt from growing calls to recast his character Star Lord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Pratt, who plays Star Lord in the MCU (and has also somehow won staring roles in the upcoming Mario and Garfield movies), isn't the internet's favourite person these days.
The main reason for this is that Pratt is a member of the allegedly anti LGBTQ+ Zoe Church. A number of critics, including actor Elliot Page, have slammed Zoe Church for its exclusionary views in the past.
Pratt has never publicly made any anti LGBTQ+ comments and insists that his church opens its doors to all, but the actor's very association with the group has raised eyebrows and led to the wider assumption that Pratt himself is anti LGBTQ+.
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Responding to a fan who suggested Marvel replace Pratt, Gunn insisted that the idea of Pratt as anti LGBTQ+ is "made up" and "utterly false". He added that Pratt would "never be replaced".
“Marvel. Hear me out. Just… replace him," a fan wrote on Twitter with a side-by-side picture of Pratt and Patrick Wilson.
Gunn responded: “For what? Because of your made-up, utterly-false beliefs about him? For something that someone else told you about him that’s not true? Chris Pratt would never be replaced as Star-Lord but, if he ever was, we would all be going with him.”
A second Twitter user asked the director if he was “cool with him being part of a homophobic church,” to which he replied: “He isn’t. I know the church he currently goes to. Do you? (The answer is you don’t, but you heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone where he goes to church, so decided, ‘yeah, okay, I’ll believe this terrible thing I heard online about this celebrity!’)”
Chris Pratt will next appear as Star Lord alongside Chris Hemsworth's Thor in July's Thor: Love And Thunder.