The Guardians of the Galaxy lead star Chris Pratt has broken his silence following the dismissal of director of the movie series, James Gunn, by Disney over controversial old tweets, saying it is “not an easy time” for the cast and crew.

The 39 year old actor, who has helped Guardians of the Galaxy become one of Marvel and Disney Studios’ most successful creations of recent years, spoke to the Associated Press in a video interview this week, over a month after Gunn was fired as director after old tweets re-emerged of off-colour jokes about sexual assault and paedophilia.

“We all love James and he’s a good friend of ours, but we also really love playing the Guardians of the Galaxy,” Pratt said. “It’s a complicated situation for everybody.”

Chris PrattChris Pratt is unhappy at the dismissal of James Gunn from 'GOTG3'

Gunn’s dismissal was announced just before the Comic-Con weekend in July, and Pratt revealed that he cancelled all his scheduled press appearances for the convention because he was still so shocked by the news, even though his commitments only had to do with The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part instead.

More: James Gunn unlikely to be re-hired as director of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’ despite petition

Contractually obliged to reprise his role as Star Lord in a third movie, Pratt then led the charge regarding a public petition to get Gunn re-instated as director for the Marvel threequel, publishing the letter via his Instagram page later.

Asked for his thoughts on his involvement with the petition, the former ‘Parks & Recreation’ star simply said: “All I know is we put a lot of time, thought, and effort in the statement we released about it. I think we all want that statement to be essentially what we have to say about it, and we were pretty clear and honest about how we feel.”

James GunnJames Gunn in June 2018

Despite the petition, Disney is believed to be highly unlikely to climb down over its decision. Meanwhile, the studio has not yet announced a replacement for Gunn, with Guardians of the Galaxy 3 scheduled for release in 2020.

More: Anna Faris reveals she agrees with ex-husband Chris Pratt that divorce “sucks”