Liberal director fired from major movie by Disney after these offensive tweets surface

Disney announced today that director James Gunn was released from the third installment of the incredibly lucrative "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie franchise after his offensive tweets surfaced.

Here's what happened

Gunn has been very vocal about his opposition to President Donald Trump, which occasioned some on the right to start looking through his social media account and question some of his posts.

Right-wing defenders of the president began highlighting and circulating some of the more offensive tweets Gunn had posted on social media.

“I like when little boys touch me in my silly place," he tweeted at one point.

"The Expendables was so manly I f***ed the s**t out of the little p***y boy next to me! The boys ARE back in town!" he said in another.

"I'm doing a big Hollywood film adaptation of The Giving Tree with a happy ending - the tree grows back and gives the kid a bl***ob," read another.

Gunn deleted his account after Disney fired him from the movie, and released a statement about the offensive tweets.

"Many people who have followed my career know when I started, I viewed myself as a provocateur, making movies and telling jokes that were outrageous and taboo," Gunn said in the statement. "As I have discussed publicly many times, as I’ve developed as a person, so has my work and my humor."

"I used to make a lot of offensive jokes. I don’t anymore. I don’t blame my past self for this, but I like myself more and feel like a more full human being and creator today," he concluded.

Here's Disney's statement about Gunn's firing

“The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him,” Walt Disney Studios' Alan Horn said.

Gunn's defenders point to an apology he posted in 2012 about offensive content he had written on a blog, but that was in reference to homophobic content, and not that found in his tweets.

"A couple of years ago I wrote a blog that was meant to be satirical and funny," Gunn wrote in 2012. "In rereading it over the past day I don't think it's funny. The attempted humor in the blog does not represent my actual feelings."

"However, I can see where statements were poorly worded and offensive to many. I'm sorry and regret making them at all," Gunn added.