Jim Carrey, who donned a Kick-Ass costume for Conan O'Brien's stage show more than two years before being cast in the sequel to the brutal 2010 superhero comedy, has suddenly distanced himself from the film because of its violent content.

"I did Kickass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence," the actor, who plays the baseball bat-wielding vigilante Colonel Stars and Stripes, wrote Sunday on Twitter. "My apologies [...] to others involve with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart."

I did Kickass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence. My apologies to e- Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) June 23, 2013

Carrey's anti-violence stance doesn't come as a surprise -- his "Cold Dead Hand" parody video at Funny or Die outraged many gun-rights advocates earlier this year -- but the timing of his statement does: The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School occurred more than six months ago, and "Kick-Ass 2" opens in less than two months (Aug. 14 in the United Kingdom and Aug. 16 in the United States).

Responding on his message board to Carrey's comments, "Kick-Ass" co-creator Mark Millar confessed to being "baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn't in the screenplay eighteen months ago."

"Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called 'Kick-Ass 2' really has to do what it says on the tin," he continued. "A sequel to the picture that gave us HIT-GIRL was always going to have some blood on the floor and this should have been no shock to a guy who enjoyed the first movie so much. My books are very hardcore, but the movies are adapted for a more mainstream audience and if you loved the tone of the first picture you're going to eat this up with a big, giant spoon. Like Jim, I'm horrified by real-life violence (even though I'm Scottish), but 'Kick-Ass 2' isn't a documentary. No actors were harmed in the making of this production! This is fiction and like Tarantino and Peckinpah, Scorcese and Eastwood, John Boorman, Oliver Stone and Chan-Wook Park, 'Kick-Ass' avoids the usual bloodless body-count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead of the CONSEQUENCES of violence, whether it's the ramifications for friends and family or, as we saw in the first movie, Kick-Ass spending six months in hospital after his first street altercation. Ironically, Jim's character in 'Kick-Ass 2' is a Born-Again Christian and the big deal we made of the fact that he refuses to fire a gun is something he told us attracted him to the role in the first place."

Directed by Jeff Wadlow, "Kick-Ass 2" also stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Chloe Grace Moretz.