Joss Whedon, who replaced Zack Snyder on the re-shoots of Justice League, spoke for the first time about the interaction with the film crew and actors. He recognized the decision to participate in the Justice League as one of the worst decisions in his life. The director made the corresponding statement in an interview with New York Magazine.
According to Whedon, his role in the project was supposed to be limited to script revisions and recommendations for reshoots, but it quickly became clear that the company was not interested in Snyder’s vision and expected more serious revisions from Whedon. At the same time, the actors involved took the new director negatively, which caused a lot of tension.
The director emphasized that his method was very different from that practiced by Snyder: as an example, he said that he required the actors to strictly adhere to all the phrases of the script, while Snyder encouraged improvisation. One of the members of the film crew anonymously said that Whedon on the set openly called the crew and actors “the rudest people he has ever worked with.” Whedon himself added that Gal Gadot, the performer of the role of Wonder Woman, bluntly told him that he “does not understand how superhero films work,” and later publicly accused the director of threatening her career. According to Whedon, the actress misunderstood him due to the fact that he loves complex metaphors, and Gadot is not a native English speaker.
Separately, the director touched upon the scandal with actor Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in Justice League. Fisher publicly denounced Whedon for downplaying his role, abuse of power, and discoloration of some of the characters played by black actors. According to Whedon, he was shocked to hear the claims, as he had spoken to Fisher on numerous occasions about changes to the script. The director emphasized that, in his opinion, the Cyborg storyline looked illogical, and the change in skin color is due to the overall lightening of the picture, which was originally too dark. At the end of the discussion, Whedon called Fisher a bad actor, emphasizing that he decided not only because of his acting talents, but also because of the lies about the director.
Justice League by Joss Whedon was released in 2017. Four years later, Zack Snyder released his version of the painting with restored material.