All the revelations about Zack Snyder's Justice League
What we will certainly address in the article, beyond the general story that saw the film as the protagonist, is the current position of Ray Fisher, interpreter of Cyborg Victor Stone in Snyder's alternate montage. In fact, the actor criticized what was written by the authoritative Rolling Stone through a reply tweet, claiming that there are serious errors within the article. Let's see together in detail what has happened in the past and in these days.
Zack Snyder Justice League
Rolling Stone on Zack Snyder and his Justice league
So the director was replaced by Joss Whedon (The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron) to do additional shots and work on post-production. The cut of him, however, did not have a great success with critics and audiences for several reasons: someone broke the script, someone else had to say about the acting of some actors, including Ben Affleck. Still others argued that Whedon's version was less somber and more fun than the other DC films, a change little appreciated by true Batman fans.
Toxic fandom Ray Fisher and the accusations against Joss Whedon and executives Warner Zack Snyder quotes Mussolini
The toxic fandom
After learning of the existence of a final version of Justice League, the so-called Snyder Cut, fans have clamored to be able to see it on the big screen. In 2021 Warner Bros satisfied them, making alternative editing available to everyone (a couple of new shots had taken place in the director's courtyard and in full pandemic). Already in 2019, fans wanted to see the definitive film by Zack Snyder, so much so that the hashtag #ReleasetheSnyderCut had spread on social networks. Once this new version was obtained, the fandom approached WarnerMedia directly with the hashtag #RestoretheSnyderVerse to get more films from the director in the DCEU. On the other hand, we remember, Snyder was asked to take care of future plans related to the DC Universe at the cinema, which also meant deciding the release schedule.Returning to the fans, the situation then escaped out of hand, so much so that the most toxic fandom has begun to threaten Warner Bros. executives. In this regard, about a year ago a user posted on Instagram a photo depicting the beheaded heads of producer Geoff Johns, president of DC Films Walter Hamada and former Warner Bros. Pictures Group president Toby Emmerich. Some fanatics had even tagged the profile of some of their children under the aforementioned image. All this was done only to obtain positive feedback on the request for a future involvement of the director in the DCEU. This is why WarnerMedia secretly commissioned a third-party cybersecurity company to report on social trolling.
The investigation revealed that 13% of the profiles used for the Zack Snyder's Justice League promotion campaign were fake. The Rolling Stone article claims that Zack Snyder himself manipulated the launch of the Snyder Cut, even as relations with Warner Bros. weren't the best at the time. The director allegedly contributed to this campaign, which turned into hatred of WB executives, particularly from an economic point of view: a promotional billboard in Times Square (the cost can reach $ 50,000 a day) and an airplane at Comic-Con in San Diego with a banner bearing the following words: "WB #ReleaseTheSnyderCut of Justice League". The plane, according to The Hollywood Reporter, was booked for two hours by a private citizen for about $ 1,000. Also, it seems that Snyder had paid an advertising consultant to feed more and more the #RealeasetheSnyderCut campaign, but for the moment all speculations remain.
Zack Snyder has commented on those claims, arguing that “if there was any puppeteer leveraging the fervor of social media was Warner Bros., which used my fans to increase subscribers to their streaming service “.
Thankfully, Godzilla vs Kong did well at the box office, but it wasn't the only movie Snyder fans targeted: James Gunn's The Suicide Squad also garnered negative reviews for the same reason, but he managed to cash in more than Zack Snyder's Justice League on HBO Max.
Zack Snyder Justice League
Ray Fisher and the accusations against Joss Whedon and the Warner executives
Now let's talk about Ray Fisher and what happened in the past with Joss Whedon and the executives of Warner Bros. The actor spoke about the latter director, criticizing his racist offensive actions on the set of the film and pointing out the fact that the leaders of Warner Bros. had not taken a position in front of these gestures, thus making all the their post against racial discrimination. At the time, Fisher's statements had triggered an investigation into the internal situation; a check that led to his removal from the franchise and the acquittal of the people involved. The actor later stated that Walter Hamada called him and asked him to retract his statements.Below you can read his words, posted on Twitter and reported by Rolling Stone:
Joss Whedon's on-set treatment of Justice League cast and crew was vulgar, offensive, unprofessional and completely unacceptable.
The fact that a few days earlier Zack Snyder, his wife and his agent had prompted Warner Bros to cancel producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg from his Justice League credits seems to have helped Ray Fisher to accuse the two of having supported the director of The Avengers: "Joss Whedon was supported, in many ways, by Geoff Johns and Jon Berg". According to Rolling Stone, inside sources interviewed to write the article believe Fisher and Snyder were working together to get results from the production company, as the actor's tweets came soon after the director's requests to Warner Bros.
Zack Snyder, however, called the accusation "completely false", recalling that he never spoke badly of the two producers in public and that he wanted them removed from the credits because "this is not the film they believed in, that they have developed or helped us achieve “. Not only that: Rolling Stone wrote in the report that Fisher's representatives never responded to the multiple requests for comment concerning this story, but what they wrote seems to be false.
The tweets of Ray Fisher and Rolling Stone
Now, after reading the results of the Rolling Stone survey, Ray Fisher used his Twitter account to criticize the news, noting that neither he nor his team “refused to comment ”The story, and calling Tatiana Siegel, the journalist who wrote about it on the site, to point out a mistake made earlier. In this regard, the chief editor of Rolling Stone, Noah Shachtman, posted on Twitter a screenshot with one of the e-mails sent to Ray Fisher's team to ask for a comment on the matter and to understand if the actor was in league with Snyder to increase its fandom. In turn, Fisher shared on the social network the screenshot of the e-mail received from his group, an email that indicated a different response deadline than that shown in the Schachtman screenshot. Below you can better understand what we are talking about:
. @RollingStone and @ TatianaSiegel27 need to amend this article immediately!
Neither myself, nor anyone on my team, EVER “declined to comment to Rolling Stone.”
Furthermore, this type of rumor- mill reporting is offensive, dangerous, and willfully evasive of fact.
A> E pic.twitter.com/HtOt4D6A9b
- Ray Fisher (@ ray8fisher) July 19, 2022
Nice try, but you cropped out the part of those emails where @ TatianaSiegel27 switched deadlines on my team
Trying to spin half-furnished emails into a “gotcha” will get you nowhere @NoahShachtman @RollingStone please rein in your employees. This is embarrassing and amateurish https://t.co/sJvlah7DsE pic.twitter.com/0Xbhq6vSF4
- Ray Fisher (@ ray8fisher) July 19, 2022
Fisher has been telling his story for two years and the on-set abuse of being a dark-skinned man. The actor is still waiting for an apology from Warner Bros, especially in recent years that new allegations have emerged against Joss Whedon. Among these, we recall, there is also that of Gal Gadot: "he said that if I had done something, it would have made my career unhappy". Actress Charisma Carpenter, who had worked with Whedon on two TV series, wrote on Twitter that the director "abused her power on numerous occasions while working with him on the sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel." Needless to say, Joss Whedon had denied the allegations against him.
Read also: Zack Snyder's Justice League remains epic even with bots
Zack Snyder sues Mussolini after Justice League investigation
Meanwhile, the overwhelming piece about the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement and the role director Zack Snyder may have played in organizing and / or encouraging his supporters to engage in toxic behavior online led the latter to make an inappropriate gesture, even given the Ray Fisher's words quoted above.The director disputed the findings of the Rolling Stone report using terms that were little appreciated by his fans as they were linked to a statement from Benito Mussolini: “If I advance, follow me. If I withdraw; kill me. If I die, avenge me! It is better to live a day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep! "
These words have fueled the controversy of users on social media, while other people think that his comment was a way to get the attention of his fans. Given the Rolling Stone accusation, Zack Snyder would have done better to inquire before suing a fascist dictator. Before concluding, we remind you that on Amazon you can find the Blu-Ray version of Zack Snyder's Justice League, also available for rent or for purchase on Prime Video!
