At Comic-Con, mixed feelings on James Gunn's firing from 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'

As the online debate rages on over Disney's decision to fire director James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, reactions on the ground at Comic-Con have been no less mixed.

Many of the attendees I spoke with seemed more uncertain than outraged – in either direction.

"I don't know how to describe it," said Suzanne Quon, a Mantis cosplayer. However, she continued, she ultimately agreed with Disney's decision.

"Guardians of the Galaxy is typically a family-friendly movie," she said. "So I think if they're trying to continue to pitch to that audience, they have to be aware of what their director has been doing."

Her companion, Eric Nguyen, agreed. "If you’re a creep outside of work, you can’t just turn it on and off."

Another Comic-Con attendee, Arelis Ramos, also cited the connection between Gunn's personal and professional lives in expressing her support for Disney.

"It's the reputation of Disney," she said. "It’s like if we said something like that about our workplace, they’d be like, You’re done for. Especially publicly. Forget about it."

Others, though, expressed concern about the series of events that led to the resurfacing of Gunn's old tweets.

Comic-Con attendee Jeffrey Valdez stressed that although he didn't condone Gunn's jokes, he was "disappointed" that Disney had caved to a "political agenda" from the alt-right.

"The upsetting thing about it is that the alt-right was using the language of people on the left in order to criticize James Gunn," he continued. "It’s clearly a strategy and that’s the reason why it’s upsetting, is that it worked."

Jeffrey's friend, Eva Chan, hinted at worry that the attacks could spread to other artists who, like Gunn, have used their platform to speak out against the right. "There’s plenty of other people in Hollywood that has said things to support anyone but the GOP."

In the meantime, Disney is expected to move ahead on Vol. 3 without the man who directed the first two installments. It's not lost on fans that the creative future of the series suddenly looks much more uncertain.

"It is worrying as far as the fate of that movie," said Travis, a Star-Lord cosplayer who said he hadn't decided how he felt about the firing itself. (Travis declined to give a last name.) "I would hope that it doesn't interfere with the movie itself, and that we still get, as fans, the best possible movie."

Valdez, for his part, was noncommittal when asked if he would watch the third Guardians. "We'll see who they select and how close it is to James Gunn's vision."

If nothing else, the Gunn debacle clearly serves as a cautionary tale for any public figure – even one as relatively obscure as Gunn was a decade ago.

Or, as Con-goer Lexi Booher put it: "If you’re in the spotlight, you have to know that your choices are going to impact somebody."