Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Ray Fisher’s Redemption: It Was Always About Cyborg

Its biggest reveal? That Victor Stone/Cyborg is at its heart. Played by Ray Fisher. The actor has been vocal on social media, accusing Justice League‘s replacement director Joss Whedon of gross and abusive behavior during reshoots four years ago, a claim which WarnerMedia investigated and reported that remedial action had been taken. Fisher wrote on. Twitter: As a Black man that grew up with an absent father, #Cyborg ’s story has always hit differently for me. Family and reconciliation are some of my biggest takeaways from #ZackSnydersJusticeLeague It’s not just comic book movie—it’s a study of the human condition.”

As a Black man that grew up with an absent father, #Cyborg’s story has always hit differently for me.

Family and reconciliation are some of my biggest takeaways from #ZackSnydersJusticeLeague

It’s not just comic book movie—it’s a study of the human condition.#SnyderCut

— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) March 18, 2021

Gene Park at the Washington Post tweeted: Ray Fisher’s anger and pain over his experience with Whedon feels justified. Cyborg is central to the story, both in plot and its emotional spirit. Whedon removing all of it is actually angering. Fisher puts in a stellar performance.

done. #ReleaseTheSnyderCut weirdos were right to demand for the release. if I knew it was gonna be actually pretty good, I would’ve joined the mob. and this is definitely embarrassing for WB and Whedon.

— Gene Park, CEO of Pizza Butt (@GenePark) March 19, 2021

NPR said: The expanded backstories on Ezra Miller’s Flash and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg; Fisher in particular gets to shine as we learn more about why Cyborg hates the father who used an alien machine to save his life after a horrific car accident, grafting unknown technology to his body. Whedon’s reputation has taken a hit since the original Justice League was released, with Fisher in particular alleging that the director was abusive on the set and oversaw story changes that reduced or eliminated the roles of nonwhite characters in the film. (Indeed, Black characters such as Cyborg’s parents and Flash’s love interest, Iris West, reappear or get more screen time in Zack Snyder’s Justice League.)

Warner Bros. has denied Fisher’s allegations that executives there hindered an investigation into studio executives’ role in enabling Whedon. WarnerMedia announced in December that its investigation had concluded and that unspecified “remedial action” had been taken.

Deadline reported on Monday that: Fisher has been quite content of late on social media, promoting the HBO Max feature Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut. But that changed tonight as he spoke out about WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff regarding her recent statements in a Variety interview about the studio’s investigation into Joss Whedon’s alleged misconduct during production on the DC film four years ago. Sarnoff was asked by Variety‘s Brent Lang whether the studio’s investigation into Whedon corroborated any of Fisher’s claims of racism on behalf of the studios’ employees. Fisher made his initial accusations on social media against Whedon last July, accusing the filmmaker who replaced Snyder of “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” behavior. Fisher also went to great lengths to point a finger at Justice League producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg, who he says enabled Whedon. WarnerMedia conducted an internal probe late last year at Fisher’s urging and in December announced that the “investigation into the Justice League movie has concluded and remedial action has been taken.”

“Our investigator, Judge Katherine Forrest, has issued statements specifically about (DC Films president) Walter Hamada, saying that there was no evidence of interference by Walter in the investigation. She said that the cuts made in the Joss Whedon version of Justice League were not racially motivated. We took it very seriously, so we hired one of the top investigators out there and gave her a tremendous amount of leeway,” Sarnoff told Variety. 

Variety also asked whether the WarnerMedia Boss knew about an NDA that Fisher signed which prevented him from publicly sharing further details about what went down on Whedon’s watch during Justice League. Sarnoff responded that she wasn’t aware of such NDA. She did add that Hamada offered Fisher a role in the upcoming Flash movie.

Batman and Wonder Woman enlist a team capable of protecting the world from the impending threat of Steppenwolf and his Parademon army, who are scouring the universe for three hidden Mother Boxes that would enable Steppenwolf to transcend worlds, lay waste to all enemies, and restore his good standing with his master, Darkseid. Though most of Batman and Wonder Woman’s initial efforts are met with resistance, they ultimately recruit Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash. But in order to help preserve the future of mankind, first they must each overcome their own demons.

In a series of five Tweets, Fisher blasted: “Apparently some folks at @WarnerMedia think that a room full of executives saying ‘we can’t an angry Black man at the center of the movie’ (and then reducing/removing all Black and POC from that movie) isn’t racist. Odd,” wrote the Cyborg actor.

“The investigator hired by @WarnerMedia was brought on to help the company assess and evade legal liabilities. Continually touting her status as a FORMER federal judge in an attempt to sway public opinion is obvious and desperate. She is now simply a lawyer,” he continued.

“As I’ve said—people will attempt to shift blame completely to Joss Whedon for the Justice League reshoots. Toby Emmerich, Geoff Johns, and Jon Berg share in that responsibility; with Johns working directly with Joss on restructuring the script based on the execs’ convos,” added Fisher.

“Furthermore: ‘There really was nothing that Walter did against Ray, in fact he offered him a role in the Flash movie.” AND ‘Walter happens to be a person of color, so he knows what that feels like.’ are the absolute definition of tone deaf,” he continued.

“Final thought for now: Rather than trying to convince people on what the Justice League investigation DIDN’T find—how about you start telling them what it DID? The public is a lot smarter than what you’re giving them credit for. The proof is there. More soon. A>E.”

Please Read.

A>E pic.twitter.com/C6PjkBLlDE

— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) March 2, 2021

While Fisher hasn’t detailed the specifics of what went sideways on the set of Justice League, neither has WarnerMedia –to the actor’s point– disclosed its findings. Fisher has continued to rail against Hamada as being an accessory to this mess; however, the executive had no oversee of Justice League when it was initially in production as he was a New Line exec then.

During his tirade against WarnerMedia, Fisher was employed by the studio for reshoots on the Snyder cut back in October. The current version of the movie runs four hours and two minutes long and greatly expounds on the character arc of Fisher’s Cyborg.

WarnerMedia had no further comments tonight in regards to Fisher’s recent slamming of Sarnoff.