Joss Whedon Issues A Defense Against Accusations
Joss Whedon has refuted claims made by Ray Fisher about the reshoots of Justice League.
This article is more than 2 years old
Joss Whedon has been coming under fire recently regarding his involvement in the reshoots for the 2017 blockbuster superhero film Justice League. Actor Ray Fisher, who plays Victor Stone a.k.a. Cyborg, has made some strong accusations against the director that have set a lot of fires when it comes to Whedon’s on-set behavior. Whedon has remained quiet during these allegations, but it sounds like he is finally deciding to combat some of Fisher’s claims.
CinemaBlend spoke with an anonymous spokesperson that represents Joss Whedon and they refuted a number of the charges Ray Fisher has put forth. The first of these that they discredited was the idea that certain characters of color in Justice League had been cut at Whedon’s discretion. These included Iris West (Kiersey Clemons), Ryan Choi (Orion Lee), and Elinore Stone (Karen Bryson). The anonymous representative said that “the statement that these roles were cut by Joss is false,” and claims that they had already been cut before Zack Snyder was replaced as the director.
Another claim that the spokesperson for Joss Whedon denied was when Ray Fisher stated that he had been informed about a color change to the film that was supposedly motivated by the skin tone of an actor of color. It is undeniable that the color tones of the original Justice League footage seen in early trailers were not consistent with other scenes that ended up in the finished version. However, the anonymous spokesperson once again denied that this was the motivation behind the artistic decision.
“This was just something that [Ray Fisher] had heard from someone else and accepted as truth, when in fact simple research would prove that it was false,” said the spokesperson for Joss Whedon. This anonymous source said that the color decisions were made by numerous creative parties and that the changes were primarily motivated by the fact that Zack Snyder shot on film while Whedon did his reshoots on digital. This is a demonstrable fact in the finished film, but whether or not the veracity of either party’s claims can be corroborated has yet to emerge.
A lot of these issues have to do with the fact that Ray Fisher has been the only one directly making these claims against Joss Whedon and other Warner Bros./DC figures, and the main parties that are involved have yet to speak out. This anonymous spokesperson is the first individual from the accused camp to make a statement. Unfortunately, their anonymity does not help to necessarily solidify the position of Whedon or the other major parties involved in the accusations.
We will have to wait and see if Joss Whedon himself ends up having to publicly speak about the allegations from Ray Fisher. If he does, it will be very important to see if his version of events lines up with other members of the production. Supposedly, the actor is scheduled to be involved with the new footage that Zack Snyder is filming for Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Exactly how that is going while this confrontation with Warner Bros. is occurring is a bit of a head-scratcher. It is going to be very interesting to see exactly how this entire situation shakes out once the dust has settled.
