Ray Fisher’s treatment on the set of Justice League continues to be a hot potato issue in Hollywood. In Zack Snyder’s original version, Cyborg was the “heart” of the movie, with his development the core story and his Mother Box-induced robotic additions proving key to defeating Steppenwolf. But when Snyder was booted off the project and Joss Whedon was installed as director, things changed for the worse.
Many of Cyborg’s scenes were cut, the script was rewritten to shift focus away from him and he was put under pressure to simplify the character substantially (Fisher famously complained about being forced to say “booyah!”). Now, the actor has revealed that only a single scene of his survived from the first Snyder cut.
Speaking in a recent interview, he said:
“It’s hard to tell with certain shots of other people for scenes that I wasn’t there for, but what I can tell you from my character and from what you saw in the theatrical version that every single scene, with the exception of the Gotham City police rooftop scene with Commissioner Gordon and Batman and Flash; every single scene that I’m in was reshot. I reshot almost the entire film on my end.”
Since the Justice League Snyder Cut was officially unveiled, it’s become increasingly apparent that the film will be a very different beast to the theatrical cut. The FanDome trailer seemed to confirm that, with almost every scene showing off brand new footage. Fisher verified this as well, saying that only a very tiny portion of Snyder’s movie made it into Whedon’s cut.
“As far as other people’s stuff like where I wasn’t there, I can’t really tell you. So, all in all, I would maybe say twenty or so minutes of that was maybe Zack’s footage, and some of it may have been taken even out of context with respect to how it was portrayed. So the fact that we’re getting a four hour cut of the movie, a four hour version of this, this is going to be massive. I said it years ago, I think I was at a convention, and I said Zack shot enough to make two movies…and lo and behold it’s a four hour movie.”
Here’s hoping that the Snyder Cut vindicates Fisher, who’s made a convincing case that Whedon, Geoff Johns and Jon Berg displayed “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” behavior on set. The most recent (and honestly totally believable) accusation is that Whedon lightened an actor’s complexion in post-production “because he didn’t like the color of their skin tone.” The director’s justification was that Snyder shot on film and he shot digitally and they needed to reconcile the two, but that seems like a fairly flimsy excuse to me.
Whatever the case, I hope Fisher gets the justice he deserves. In the meantime, he’s going to have a chance to shine next year when Zack Snyder’s new and improved Justice League hits HBO Max.