James Gunn Advises Star Wars Trolls "Go To Therapy"

Earlier this week actor Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, opened up about the backlash to his performance and how it led to him contemplating taking his own life.

That came at a time when there's been a lot of negativity around the Star Wars fandom in the wake of the divisive response to The Last Jedi, which has seen some genuine criticism but also plenty of abuse too, with actress Kelly Marie Tran recently deleting her Instagram posts after harassment. Director Chris McQuarrie also recently commented that the reaction to Episode VIII had "cured" him of his desire to make a Star Wars movie, and now James Gunn has had his say. The Guardians of the Galaxy director wrote on Twitter:

"Star Wars (or any movie) may be important to you, but it doesn’t belong to you. If your self-esteem depends on how good you think the current Star Wars is, or your childhood is ruined because you don’t like something in a movie, GO TO THERAPY."

Another of Gunn's tweets makes an even more salient point, which is that while it's valid to critique a movie or performance, that doesn't including abusing or harassing the individual(s) involved. Of course, it's not just Star Wars that has this (hopefully just a minority) side to its fandom, but the franchise is so big that it is one of the loudest, and something that needs to be addressed.