After Twitter came for Chris Pratt, his Marvel costars came to his rescue

Marvel superheroes are coming to their costar Chris Pratt's rescue after Twitter dubbed him the worst Hollywood Chris.

The Avengers assembled Tuesday in response to an age-old popularity contest among actors Pratt, Chris Pine, Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth that recently resurfaced along with an overwhelming consensus to vote Pratt off Hollywood Chris Island.

The Hollywood Chris debate is a running joke among Twitter users — mostly highlighting the absurd existence of four famous Chrises who bear a striking resemblance to one another. But Disney actors Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana and Robert Downey Jr. took the social media slight against their friend very seriously.

"You all, @prattprattpratt is as solid a man there is," Ruffalo, who plays Bruce Banner — a.k.a. Hulk — in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, tweeted in an effort to redirect his followers' focus to the upcoming presidential election.

"I know him personally, and instead of casting aspersions, look at how he lives his life," Ruffalo added. "He is just not overtly political as a rule. This is a distraction. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, friends. We are so close now."

Pratt received some heat this month for skipping a Marvel star-studded fundraiser for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign attended by Downey, Saldana, Ruffalo, Tom Holland, Paul Rudd, Scarlett Johansson and his fellow Hollywood Chris, Evans.

Saldana, who plays Gamora opposite Pratt's Peter Quill (a.k.a. Star-Lord) in Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise, also weighed in, citing an inspirational quote from late hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur.

"No matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep your head up and handle it," she tweeted. "You got this @prattprattpratt. Your family, friends, colleagues & everyone who’s ever crossed paths with you knows your heart and your worth!"

"Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn stood up for Pratt on Twitter as well by addressing some common criticisms of Pratt, who has previously rejected accusations that he belongs to a church with anti-LGBTQ views.

Pratt is a member of Los Angeles' Zoe Church, which is modeled after the Hillsong megachurch, whose founder Brian Houston wrote in a 2015 blog post that Hillsong does "not affirm a gay lifestyle."

"Just finding out about this nonsense," Gunn tweeted Tuesday. "@Prattprattpratt is the best dude in the world. I’ve spent hours & hours sharing my deepest truths with this man, as he has with me. Please stop assuming what he believes, politically or in any other way, because he’s a Christian. ...

"[M]any actors are nice only to people in power. What matters to me is how people treat the crew members, and wait staff, and fans. And Chris Pratt is always incredibly kind to these people, which is one of the reasons I love him."

When pressed on the Zoe Church's alleged homophobia, the filmmaker added, "I was a Catholic for years, hoping I could have a bigger impact working for gay rights from the inside. I eventually gave up. But it was a valid choice. & I applaud other non-bigots who do the same.

"Chris himself has openly stated the church he attends doesn’t reflect all of his personal views, and that he is a 'man who believes that everyone is entitled to love who they want,'" Gunn continued.

On Instagram, Downey, who launched the MCU as Tony Stark's Iron Man, shared a behind-the-scenes photo of himself and Pratt chilling on the set of an Avengers movie with a caption possibly alluding to the controversy surrounding his costar's religious affiliations.

"What a world," Downey wrote Tuesday. "The 'sinless' are casting stones at my #brother, Chris Pratt... A real #Christian who lives by #principle, has never demonstrated anything but #positivity and #gratitude AND he just married into a family that makes space for civil discourse and (just plain fact) INSISTS on service as the highest value."

"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..."

Speaking of that family Pratt married into, Katherine Schwarzenegger also came to her husband's defense in the comment section of an Instagram post about the Hollywood Chris saga. The animal rights activist and children's book author, who welcomed her first child with Pratt earlier this year, is the daughter of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger and granddaughter Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

“Is this really what we need?" Schwarzenegger wrote. "There’s so much going on in the world and people struggling in so many ways. Being mean is so yesterday."

The latest Hollywood Chris drama can be traced back to an Oct. 17 tweet from screenwriter Amy Berg, who posted photos of Pratt, Pine, Evans and Hemsworth with the simple caption, "One has to go" — and you can probably guess who racked up the most nominations in the replies.

Notably absent from the conversation so far are Marvel actors and Hollywood Chrises Hemsworth and Evans, as well as Pratt himself, who has yet to remark publicly on the situation. Check out more Hollywood Chris tweets below.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.