Zack Snyder’s Justice League has had quite the history. Most recently, two of its stars have been the subject of controversy: Ezra Miller and Amber Heard. The Flash star was arrested multiple times in Hawaii, while the actress behind Mera was involved in a polarizing defamation suit. However, before that, there were Ray Fisher’s allegations against Warner Bros.
Way back in 2020, FIsher started posting public allegations against Warner Bros. leadership, reshoot director Joss Whedon, and producers of the film. Among those who he accused was Geoff Johns, who the actor claimed issued a “thinly veiled threat” to his career when Fisher and his agent had tried to take complaints up the proper chain of command.
The fan movement behind the re-cut of 2017’s critical and financial flop, Justice League, is also a prominent part of its history. In fact, this alleged surge of support was even responsible for winning an Oscar award for ‘fan-favorite movie moment’ over Avengers: Endgame. Though, there was even a controversy there, as reports from Vanity Fair indicated that most of the voting might have been done by automated bots.
Now the movie is continuing to add to its controversial history thanks to threats issued to producers by Zack Snyder while his re-cut was being developed.
Snyder Threatens Warner Bros. Executives
A new report from Rolling Stone has revealed some of the dirty laundry behind Zack Snyder's Justice League. The report noted that beginning in the spring of 2020, Zack Snyder, the director of the film, had started to repeatedly demand that two producers, Geoff Johns and Jon Berg, be removed from his re-cut of Justice League.
His CAA agent called Warner Bros. every day to check to see if any progress had been made on removing the two from the project. Even his wife, Deborah Snyder, tried pressuring someone in the studio's story department.
Snyder had admitted that the couple did "[ask] the studio" to intervene after "a personal plea" from them.
Then on June 26, 2020, the director took his directive a step further. Apparently, according to multiple sources, at one point Snyder confronted an executive from the studio's postproduction production and threatened Johns and Berg, saying: “[they] are dragging their feet on taking their names off my cut. Now, I will destroy them on social media.”
Sources indicated that Snyder blamed both Johns and Berg for his removal from the DC Universe when they replaced him in running the portfolio of superhero films in 2016. It wasn't until four months of a fan siege (a chunk of them being Twitter bots) that they were removed.
The Snyders noted that "[they] have [never] said anything negative about Geoff Johns or Jon Berg on social media or in interviews," and that they simply wanted the two removed from the credits because "this was not the movie they believed in, developed, or helped us to get made."
Rolling Stones say that insiders believe that Fisher's tweets around the same time, calling out Joss Whedon, Johns, and Ber, were a result of the actor working in tandem with Snyder. This is an assumption based on how Fisher's posts would be published shortly after the director made behind-the-scenes demands.
Snyder called the allegation "totally untrue," and the actor behind Cyborg declined to comment.
The Justice League Curse
This certainly isn’t a good look for the longtime director, and it definitely doesn’t paint Snyder’s involvement with his updated cut in a good light. Honestly, at this point, it sure does seem like the DCEU is cursed beyond saving—Justice League especially.
At the same time, this could end up serving to back up the many claims Fisher has had against the two producers in question. While Snyder doesn’t look great here, they too might be on the cusp of never touching another DC production.
With Rolling Stones’ piece now out in the wild, there will no doubt be public responses from several parties being prepped. It’s just a matter of who will be first. Will it be Snyder? Warner Bros.? Ray Fisher?
For anybody still holding on to a modicum of hope that the Snyderverse will see the light after The Flash, it might be best to prepare for the worst. It’s looking like the only chance it’ll ever happen is with a Crisis event film, but even then, that’s assuming those rumors are true and that the studio hasn’t changed its minds.
Zack Snyder's Justice League is now available to stream on HBO Max.
