James Gunn hits back at netizen commenting on Guardians of Galaxy 3 actor's race

American filmmaker James Gunn recently came out in the defence of his Guardians of Galaxy Vol. 3 villain played by Chukwudi Iwuji after the latter faced some racist remarks from a social media user. On Monday, Gunn posted a photo of Iwuji dressed as his character from the upcoming Marvel film, and captioned it, "Can’t wait for you all to meet this guy."

A social media user instantly took to the comments section and accused the makers of using the "race card" to pick villains or characters in the MCU film. 

The Instagram user commented, "Damnit…another white guy they made into a black guy. Why couldn’t they just leave him white or i dont know…pick a different minority? How about Asian or gasp! A Latino? (how many Latinos and Asians in MCU? Like total of 5??) Or make him an Indian or something…because they don’t and won’t, that makes them ‘woke.' Next time, a major character (hero/villain) will be a trans or homosexual or non-binary (when in comics they are not). Sad and pathetic. They’re picking based on race and what’s PC and not on acting and what’s established."

James replied back to the user and said that he chose the actor who was best suited for the role and he does not care which race the person belongs to. The director's comment read, "I chose the best actor, period, and the best person for the role. I don’t give a s**t what ethnicity Chukwudi Iwuji is, so stop with your racist presumptions on WHY he was chosen. (And, by the way, he’s playing a guy who’s almost always purple in the colour.)"

Guardians of Galaxy Vol. 3 being the end of the trilogy

Marvel Studios Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will mark the end of the franchise. It will release on 5 May 2023. Meanwhile, Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, and more will return for the latest installment. The cast wrapped up filming for the threequel in May 2022.