Justice League: Zack Snyder comments on Joss Whedon abuse allegations

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Director Zack Snyder has a reason to celebrate this week because the masses will soon get to see his definitive cut of Justice League when it hits HBO Max on March 18, 2021, and early reaction to the 4-hour superhero reaction is been mostly positive. The film has so far settled at a 75% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and every indication seems to point to the fact that this was all worth it in the end. 

Mixed in with a lot of the positivity for Zack Snyder's Justice League is the elephant in the room surrounding claims that director Joss Whedon, who stepped in to finish Justice League when Snyder had to deal with a personal family tragedy, was abusive on set. Whedon reportedly came in and did sweeping reshoots and essentially turned the film into something completely different. As this was all going on, Cyborg actor Ray Fisher alleges that Whedon abused his power on set and that the issues stemming from him actually went all the way up the food chain that ultimately led to an internal investigation within Warner Bros. In its aftermath, Whedon stepped down as showrunner of the upcoming HBO series The Nevers and several more people who have worked with Whedon, most notably Charisma Carpenter on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, stood with Fisher in his commitment to seeing Whedon be held accountable for his actions because of their own personal bad encounters with him.

All of this has played out as Warner Bros. has had to promote Zack Snyder's Justice League and with the director making the rounds to promote the film, the subject of the abuse allegations was bound to come up. During a recent interview with the "New York Times", the conversation turned to these events briefly when Snyder was asked if he knew what was going on at the time. Snyder went on to say "Not at the time" and his response to the situation is pretty respectful considering everything that went on:

"The last thing they wanted to do was call me, complaining about them having a hard time shooting. But in retrospect, do I feel bad that they had to go through that? I do. These guys are my friends, and they’re amazing actors, and they’re strong people. I want them to be taken care of and in a healthy situation. I wasn’t there, so your opinion on it is probably is as good as mine."

What I have come to really respect about Zack Snyder is that he has seemed to cultivate these very positive relationships with the people he has worked with. They all seem to really respect him and their support of his vision is pretty evident whenever they discuss anything about Snyder's vision for the film. Snyder likely wouldn't be updated on the day-to-day activities of the shoot once he left and considering what he was going through at the time, all of the people involved with the film probably didn't want to both him with their production woes while he was dealing with personal tragedy. I can imagine once the dust settled and they all had a moment, the cast likely told Snyder what went on, and considering how close he is to them, I'm sure he feels a bit saddened by the fact that he couldn't do anything to prevent what happened. 

At the end of the day, Snyder is getting the film out there as he intended and all involved with his vision from the start have given their 100% support to him. All of this has to be pretty rewarding now that all the fans that made this happen get to see it and he can stand behind a project, good or bad because it's the movie he truly set out to make. However brutal the Justice League shoot was can't be undone but the release of the Snyder Cut does offer up a pretty happy ending for Zack Snyder and company.