Brian Waggoner, currently lead designer for Marvel’s Avengers, will no longer be performing spokesperson duties for Crystal Dynamics. The announcement was made by Crystal Dynamics and coincided with an apology from Waggoner over questionable comments he made on Twitter.
Warning: This post includes links to tweets that describe racist, ableist remarks that feature offensive language. We advise discretion before clicking on such links.
As spotted by many and shared by Rock Paper Shotgun, Waggoner has posted racist comments on the social media platform as far back as 2014, and ableist ones in 2010. Other members of the Marvel’s Avengers community have uncovered more examples of Waggoner’s detestable Twitter remarks before joining Crystal Dynamics in 2021.
Those tweets date from around the time he was working at Gazillion as part of the Marvel Heroes MMO team. Some were poorly conceived jokes, others were flat out mockery while one example, highlighted by prominent Marvel’s Avengers leaker Miller in an unusually critical move, engaged in racist dogwhistles.
Waggoner tweeted a statement on Tuesday, saying: “Over the weekend old tweets I wrote from before my time at Crystal resurfaced and I apologize and take full accountability for the hurt they caused to my followers, the community, and those I work with.”
“Since that time, I have learned and grown and the content I posted doesn’t reflect who I am today.” Waggoner also added that, “I understand if you cannot accept my apology because of the pain I have caused. I will continue to listen, learn, and work to improve myself.”
Despite the disgusting nature of his past comments, it doesn’t appear that Waggoner will be fired and will continue to serve as lead designer on Marvel’s Avengers. While he will no longer be speaking publicly on behalf of the studio or the team, he still gets to keep his job.