Warning: this article contains spoilers for Peacemaker episode eight.
With a certain high profile cameo of some members of the Justice League hitting the DC Extended Universe Thursday, some fans of Ray Fisher’s Cyborg are disappointed his character did not make the cut.
The scene in question occurred in the season finale of Peacemaker when Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Aquaman showed up to support John Cena’s Peacemaker for the mysterious Project Butterfly mission, albeit too little, too late.
While Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa both made appearances as The Flash and Aquaman, respectively, Superman and Wonder Woman only appeared in silhouette form. Completely absent from the lineup of heroes were Batman and Cyborg, played by Ben Affleck and Ray Fisher, respectively, in 2017’s Justice League and last year’s Zack Snyder redux of that film.
Fisher had a very public falling out with Warner Bros. after claiming Joss Whedon engaged in misconduct on the set of Justice League during reshoots. The actor alleges higher-ups had enabled the director’s behavior at DC. Specifically, Fisher stated he refused to be a part of the DCEU for any project overseen by studio boss Walter Hamada. Due to this ultimatum and Hamada’s continued employment at the studio, Fisher confirmed last year that WB removed him from the cast of The Flash, an end result that the actor said he strongly disagreed with.
In Feb. 2021, following a lengthy internal investigation of the Justice League reshoots, Fisher also demanded an apology from Hamada.
To some DC fans, omitting even the Cyborg character’s shadow from the scene seemed to add insult to injury.
Although some murmurs circulating in the Twittersphere were attempting to point fingers at director James Gunn for Cyborg’s omission from the Peacemaker episode, others were quick to defend the showrunner, pointing out how Gunn even said in a recent interview that the studio restricted him to use Batman or Cyborg.
Another fan pointed to the long-standing DC canon that Victor Stone is associated with the Justice League and therefore should’ve been included in the cameo at least in silhouette form, such as is illustrated with Lee Thompson Young’s portrayal of Cyborg in the Superman TV show Smallville.
“Like it or not the character has a history with them,” wrote one Twitter user.
Another fan was mourning the trio of heroes from Zack Snyder’s Justice League that seem to be outcasts of the DCEU going forward, including not only Fisher’s Cyborg but Ben Affleck’s Batman and Henry Cavill’s Superman.
The Peacemaker omission was just one more reason one fan once again called for restoring the so-called “Snyderverse” within DC, in which Fisher’s Cyborg was the stand-out character in 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Who knows what the DCEU will have in store in the future. Things seem much brighter today than they did a few years ago now that we have Gunn’s excellent Peacemaker series and the long-awaited release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League last year. But we’re also sad to see Fisher and others making such an unceremonious departure from the franchise.