Last year, Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in Justice League, called out Joss Whedon on Twitter for “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” behavior on set. Now that audiences will finally see the Snyder Cut on March 18, Fisher has shared a new statement, detailing the racism he experienced on the Justice League set at the hands of the executive producers.
“Prior to the Justice League reshoots of 2017, racially discriminatory conversations were had and entertained—on multiple occasions—by Warner Bros. Pictures executives: Toby Emmerich, Geoff Johns, and Jon Berg,” he began his statement. “Had I been aware of those conversations in realtime, I would have addressed them in realtime. However—it wasn’t until the summer of 2020 that individuals who were in those meetings felt comfortable sharing with me what they had witnessed firsthand.”
He continued, “When it comes to matters involving race, I always try to give the benefit of the doubt to those who may be ignorant of their own biases. But when you have studio executives (particularly Geoff Johns) saying, ‘We can’t have an angry Black man at the center of the movie’—and then those executives use their power to reduce and remove ALL Black people from that movie—they are no longer entitled to any belief associated with doubt.”
The executive producers have not commented on Fisher’s latest allegations yet.
Fisher’s statement comes nearly a week after he took to Twitter to criticize how Warner Bros. ignored his complaints while still approaching a Black Superman movie written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, despite allegedly not valuing the studio’s Black stars. He tweeted, “Do ya’ll remember that time Walter Hamada and @wbpictures tried to destroy a Black man’s credibility, and publicly delegitimize a very serious investigation, with lies in the press? But hey, Black Superman...”
Deadline reported that DC Films president Walter Hamada reportedly heard Fisher out and launched an investigation, but the investigation was taken over by Warner Media, ultimately finding “no issues worthy of pursuit.”
In a statement given to Deadline, WarnerMedia responded to Fisher’s criticism of the recent news: “Once again there are false statements being made about our executives and our company surrounding the recent Justice League investigation. As we have stated before, an extensive and thorough third-party investigation was conducted. Our executives, including Walter Hamada, fully cooperated, no evidence was found of any interference whatsoever, and Warner Bros. did not lie in the press. It’s time to stop saying otherwise and move forward productively.”
Read Fisher’s full statement below: