ARTICLE
Ray Fisher vs WarnerBros: A Timeline
By Rachelle / 15 Sep 2020 (Tuesday)
Ever since Zack Snyder's Justice League was officially announced at DCFanDome, Ray Fisher (who plays Cyborg in the film) has been very vocal about his fight against Justice League reshoot director, Joss Whedon, as well as executive producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg.
Whedon (director of Marvel Studios’ blockbuster superhero movies The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron) took over directing duties on the DC comics adaptation from Zack Snyder, after Snyder left the project due to a death in his family. Fisher played the cybernetic superhero Cyborg in the film, alongside Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck’s Batman, Henry Cavill’s Superman, Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, and Ezra Miller’s the Flash.
In a string of tweets, Fisher accused director Joss Whedon of “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” on-set treatment of the film’s cast and crew. This was back in July. Now, Warner Bros has stepped in to investigate the situation but they've been reporting that Fisher is uncooperative.
Can't keep up? Here's a definitive timeline on what went down and is currently happening now:
June
It all started when Ray Fisher tweeted that he was retracting a statement he made at the 2017 San Diego Comic Con. In the tweet was a clip of him calling Joss Whedon a "great guy" and a "good person to come in a clean up and finish up" the film for Zack Snyder.
July
Fisher tweeted about Joss Whedon's gross and unprofessional mistreatment of the cast and crew during the reshoot.
When asked by a fan on Instagram live why he didn't reveal more, Fisher said:
I am still very much under contract and I am still very much under Non-Disclosure Agreement. So I've got to be very careful about what I say and how I say it, otherwise I can get sued into oblivion. So just a disclaimer there. For the folks who were looking for more specifics in the moment right now, I'm sorry that I cannot give them to you in the moment right now. Just gotta make sure all your ducks are laid out in a row so you can go ahead and handle the situation appropriately so you don't end up being, outside of professionally liable, legally liable for anything that could be litigious or whatever that would be. This will take some time, we will get it done, we will win, and then we'll be able to move on in the world. That's it.
Whedon has refused to make any comments regarding Fisher's allegations. Meanwhile, Berg denies the claims, saying that he and Johns did not enable any unprofessional behavior by the filmmaker as claimed by the actor.
“We’re gonna get to the heart of everything. And if anything I said about that man is untrue, I invite him wholeheartedly to sue me for libel, to sue me for slander.”
In a live panel for the independent Justice League fan convention JusticeCon, Fisher claimed that he is undergoing “a process” to get to “the heart” of his allegations. He said:
Obviously I put out some pretty strong words and some pretty strong comments about Joss Whedon, and every single one of those words, every single one of those comments, is true.
It’s taken me two and a half years to get all the information I need to be able to build something that’s strong enough so people can’t dismiss it. We’re in the process of making sure that people can tell their stories in a confidential way that they don’t get any sort of retribution done against them.
We’re gonna get to the heart of everything. And if anything I said about that man is untrue, I invite him wholeheartedly to sue me for libel, to sue me for slander.
August
Warner Bros opened an investigation into the set of Justice League, 3 years after the film's release, following Fisher's allegations of abuse against director Joss Whedon.
Whedon is yet to release a statement on the matter.
September
"Mr. Fisher has declined to speak to the investigator."
Warner Bros issued a statement claiming that Fisher was not responding to an investigator looking into his allegations. A studio spokesperson said:
WarnerMedia hired an independent third party investigator who has attempted multiple times to meet with Mr. Fisher to discuss his concerns but, to date, Mr. Fisher has declined to speak to the investigator. Warner Bros. remains committed to accountability and to the well-being of every cast and crew member on each of its productions. It also remains committed to investigating any specific and credible allegation of misconduct, which thus far Mr. Fisher has failed to provide.
Fisher responded to the studio's statements with the following tweets:
Jason Momoa, who plays Aquaman in Justice League, expressed soliditary with his fellow co-star amid the Cyborg actor’s ongoing dispute with Warner Bros. Momoa took to social media to post a photo of Fisher on his Instagram story with the caption “IStandWithRayFisher.”
Kiersey Clemons who will appear in Zack Snyder's Justice League as Iris West also posted an image of her character on Instagram with the caption #IStandWithRayFisher.
In most recent news, Fisher escalated the battle again by questioning the independence of the investigation.
There has even been reports of a Frosty the Snowman movie starring Jason Momoa, a fake announcement made to derail the attention from Fisher's campaign in speaking up about the mistreatment during the Justice League reshoots.
No conclusion on this matter has been made as of this article's publish date.