In a recent interview with the New York magazine, Vulture, filmmaker Joss Whedon denies allegations and criticizes the cast of the Justice League. A career spanning almost 30 years, allegations against Whedon started on the set of the cult classic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These allegations continue to the present day in 2017 with the infamous Justice League movie. The once “Champion of the Geeks and Feminist” took some time to speak out in an interview one could only be called bizarre.
Due to his daughter's tragic passing and creative differences, Zack Snyder stepped down from directing Justice League after finishing principal photography in 2016. Warner Bros hired Joss Whedon as Snyder's replacement and reshot 80% of the film leaving Snyder's original vision on the cutting floor. Whedon replaced Snyder's dark and serious mood with a light-hearted tone and ill-fitted inappropriate jokes. Fans felt the Whedon Cut was disconnected, both in tone and in the story, with the earlier films directed by Zack Snyder.
In the aftermath of the Whedon Cut, legions of Zack Snyder and DC fans began campaigning for the release of the Snyder Cut. Fans used the hashtags #ReleaseTheSnyderCut to post on social media, leading the hashtags to trend several times over the years. Fans even emailed Warner Bros. management, requesting that Snyder's initial cut of the film be released. Many of these executives, as well as film critics, lied to the fans about the Snyder Cut's existence. Zack Snyder officially announced the release date for Zack Snyder's Justice League on May 28, 2020, via social media.
Nearly five years after the film's release, Joss Whedon discusses the difficult production of Justice League. During reshoots, the filmmaker, who has been accused by many stars of harassment and toxic misconduct on set, blasted the film's stars and their behavior, claiming he had never worked with "a ruder group of people" and dismissing Gal Gadot's claims that he threatened to damage her career, due to English being her second language. Whedon also berates Snyder fans for using the Internet and his former actors to turn against him in the name of the original filmmaker and their efforts to get the movie restored to its original and better vision. Whedon was quoted as, "The beginning of the internet raised me up, and the modern internet pulled me down. The perfect symmetry is not lost on me.”
After so many accusations and complaints of his actions on the set of the film, Whedon's Justice League criticism comes as a shock and at an odd time. Ray Fisher famously started a campaign to expose Whedon's bad behavior during the reshoots, calling the filmmaker's treatment of him and his co-stars "abusive" and "unprofessional," and accusing him of racism for reducing his scenes due to racist purposes. Whedon insisted Fisher was a “Bad actor in both senses”. Gal Gadot, would, later on, back up Fisher's claims. Charisma Carpenter would accuse him of harmful demeanor, which Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-stars Amber Benson and Michelle Trachtenberg would confirm. Due to these recent accusations, Whedon was removed from the HBO series The Nevers.
The most notable question surrounding the allegations and the troubled production of the Justice League movie is, why did none of this happen with The Avengers movies? The answer could simply be, the cast of JL was exhausted after working so hard on the movie, only to have a different director come in and change everything they work on. The cast was, compared to the cast of The Avengers, must younger and not as well-known. Whedon could have interpreted it as a way to assert power and a stricter directing style. Joss Whedon responded to Ray Fisher sharing notes with the director saying, “It feels like I’m taking notes right now, and I don’t like taking notes from anybody ― not even Robert Downey Jr.,” As seen in countless behind the scene footage, RDJ did indeed change and improvise many scenes in both Avengers movies.
With Whedon's comments directly criticizing people who speak against him, even those who have tried to defend him in the past, it becomes unlikely that he will receive much support.
Read more at the VULTURE for the full interview.
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