Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn whipped out his Star-Lord quad blaster to defend Chris Pratt from one Marvel fan.
The director, 55, clapped back at a fan on Twitter for suggesting that Marvel replace the actor—who has played Peter Quill/Star-Lord in the Guardians franchise since 2014—with Patrick Wilson instead.
The fan wrote: "Marvel. Hear me out. Just… replace him." The Twitter post also included a side-by-side comparison of Pratt and Wilson to show their resemblance.
It's safe to say that Gunn was having absolutely no part of it. "For what? Because of your made-up, utterly-false beliefs about him?" he tweeted in response. "For something that someone else told you about him that's not true?"
Showing true galactic solidarity, he concluded his response, "Chris Pratt would never be replaced as Star-Lord but, if he ever was, we would all be going with him."
Gunn also responded to a now-privated tweet that, according to Yahoo Entertainment, asked the director if he was "cool" with Pratt attending a church that held homophobic views.
"He isn't. I know the church he currently goes to. Do you?" Gunn replied. "(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!')"
According to multiple reports, Pratt and his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, now expecting their second child together, attend Zoe Church in Los Angeles.
In a 2018 interview with The New York Times, Zoe Church founder Chad Veach shared he "modeled his church after Hillsong," whose former leader Brian Houston stated does "not affirm a gay lifestyle" in a 2015 blog post. Zoe Church's views on LGBTQ+ rights are not disclosed on its website.
In 2019, Elliot Page called out Pratt on Twitter for attending an "infamously anti lgbtq" church, though did not state which church. He wrote: "If you are a famous actor and you belong to an organization that hates a certain group of people, don't be surprised if someone simply wonders why it's not addressed."
A few days later, Pratt took to his Instagram Story to respond to Elliot's remarks.
"My faith is important to me but no church defines me or my life and I am not spokesman for any church or any group of people," Pratt wrote in part. "My values define who I am. We need less hate in this world, not more. I am a man who believes that everyone is entitled to love who they want free from the judgment of their fellow man."
Still, calls from fans for the so-called "Worst Chris" in Hollywood to be replaced have resurfaced following the release of the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer earlier this month. In the video, Thor is joined in multiple scenes by Star-Lord, who is openly bisexual in the comics, and the rest of the Guardians.
It's not just Gunn that has Pratt's back—in 2020, his fellow Avengers assembled around him too.
"You all, @prattprattpratt is as solid a man there is," Mark Ruffalo tweeted. "I know him personally, and instead of casting aspersions, look at how he lives his life. He is just not overtly political as a rule."
So did Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr. "What a world," he remarked in a lengthy 2020 Instagram post. "The ‘sinless' are casting stones at my brother Chris Pratt."
Describing Chris as "A real Christian who lives by principle," RDJ continued, "If you take issue with Chris, I've got a novel idea. Delete your social media accounts, sit with your OWN defects of character, work on THEM, then celebrate your humanness."