Despite a petition to get him re-hired as director of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and the overwhelming support of the cast, it seems as though Disney’s decision to fire him over controversial old tweets won’t be reversed.

According to a report by Variety on Wednesday night (August 1st), the studio is unlikely to change its mind over the decision made last month to dismiss Gunn from the Marvel three-quel.

This comes as Disney, which owns Marvel Studios, has come under pressure to reconsider its stance, after a public petition was launched to re-instate Gunn last week. A few days later, the entire cast of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 pledged its “full support” to the director, with lead star Chris Pratt going even further and calling directly for Gunn’s reinstatement.

James GunnJames Gunn is unlikely to be reinstated as director of 'Guardians...' 3

Gunn, 51, was officially dropped from the film in July after a number of highly controversial tweets containing jokes he had made about paedophilia and rape surfaced, dating from between 2008 and 2012, as a result of efforts by alt-right campaigners.

Disney said at the time it had “severed” its relationship with the filmmaker, calling his comments “indefensible and inconsistent” with its values.

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It’s thought that the involvement of Disney Studios chief Alan Horn and CEO Bob Iger in the original decision will prove to have the final say and override any internal unrest within Disney over the issue.

Gunn himself has directly addressed the issue once, apologising for his past behaviour online and insisting that he had changed and would not make those jokes now.

His brother, Sean Gunn, who also stars in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, recently suggested that there had been “a lot of lies” circulating about James and that the controversy was “mostly a lot of just people trying to destroy his character.”

More: James Gunn’s brother Sean defends filmmaker following Disney axe