The ongoing conflict between Justice League actor Ray Fisher and WarnerMedia and DC Films continues to grow. In a tweet posted Tuesday morning, Fisher accused former DC Films co-president Geoff Johns and producers Toby Emmerich and Jon Berg of “racially discriminatory conversations” focused on his character of Cyborg in Justice League.
“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,” Fisher wrote, saying he received information about the conversations from individuals who witnessed them firsthand. “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 benefit associated with doubt.
“[WB head] Toby [Emmerich], Geoff [Johns], and [WB co-president of production] Jon Berg were not ignorant of their biases,” Fisher continued. “They understood full well that the racist rhetoric they chose to entertain in those meetings was offensive, discriminatory, and unacceptable. Furthermore, they dared not speak those things to me, nor any black person associated with the film. Instead, they chose the cowardly route of gaslighting — complete with extremely problematic requests such as asking me to ‘play Cyborg like Quasimodo;’ and forcing a scene to be reshot so they could highlight the existence of Cyborg’s penis.”
You can read Fisher’s entire statement below:
Please Read.
A>E pic.twitter.com/C6PjkBLlDE
— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) March 2, 2021
Fisher continued his post stating that while Geoff Johns was not credited as a co-writer on Joss Whedon’s reworking of Justice League, he was an “enforcer” of race-based discrimination during conversations with Emmerich and Berg. Fisher also reiterated his position that DC Films president Walter Hamada owes an apology to those individuals who participated in the investigation of workplace toxicity on the set of Justice League.
Hamada and Fisher were thrust into the spotlight following Fisher’s accusations against director Joss Whedon, who took over for Zack Snyder following his departure from the original project.
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WarnerMedia and DC Films dispute Fisher’s allegations, citing a third-party investigation that found no misconduct and no interference from Hamada, whom Fisher has accused of protecting Johns. This lead Fisher to state he would never participate in any project associated with Hamada in the future. WarnerMedia said the investigation resulted in “remedial action,” but failed to specify against whom.
And we learned from Zack Snyder that Cyborg’s storyline had been reduced when he left the project, something he hopes to remedy with the upcoming Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
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Whedon has since stepped down from directing HBO’s The Nevers series, citing the COVID-19 pandemic. HBO is owned by WarnerMedia.
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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.