In 2012, Joss Whedon was envied by filmmakers around the world. Not for nothing had he just directed Avengers, the movie that blew up the box office breaking all records at the time and ushered in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After proving his worth as showrunner of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and after having participated in The Office, Glee and Firefly, the director had the opportunity to take on a large-scale film, and he far exceeded the public’s expectations. So much so that he soon directed Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and got on board Agents of SHIELD.
However, for some time now Whedon has disappeared from the map, or at least that’s what it seems. It’s not that he is no longer involved in Marvel Studios films, but that his career has suffered a major hiatus. What is the reason for this invisibility of one of the most important directors of recent decades?
Everything has an explanation.
Cases of abuse and toxic relationships
“Joss Whedon and we have gone our separate ways. We remain excited about the future of The Nevers and look forward to its premiere.” These words are from HBO and date back to 2021. At the time, Whedon had just finished directing his last major project, The Nevers series.
But, because of the bad press he had earned shortly before, they decided to remove him from the project and pretend he had nothing to do with the series. With this in mind you can imagine the dimension of the matter, but in recent months more and more statements against the director have continued to come to light.
The first major controversy surrounding Whedon arose in 2017, when his ex-wife Kai Cole published a letter accusing the director of having been unfaithful to her on several occasions throughout their 16-year marriage. Cole also alleged that Whedon had been a hypocrite, publicly promoting feminist values while in private he had been an unfaithful and lying husband.
Although these statements remained as something punctual, they were added to others that came from much earlier, specifically from 2004. While Whedon was directing the Angel series at this time, Charisma Carpenter, who had played Cordelia Chase in the series, claimed that Whedon had mistreated her on set and fired her from the series after she became pregnant. Carpenter also claimed that Whedon had been a toxic boss and had created a hostile work environment on the set of the series.
The worst shooting in history
At the time, no one heard Carpenter’s statements, but they came to light again because of one particular shoot: the one for Justice League. In 2017, Zack Snyder’s daughter committed suicide, so the director, who was back at the time on the set of Justice League, abandoned the shoot.
It was such a blow for Snyder that it took him a long time to recover, and in order to continue with the project Warner looked for a replacement: Joss Whedon. The choice seemed perfect, but it soon became clear that it was not at all. Not only did he end up turning the film into something grotesque, but he also caused the atmosphere on the set to be a disaster.
The first to bring what happened on Justice League to light was Ray Fisher, who plays Cyborg. Fisher accused Whedon of abusive and unprofessional behavior on the set. He stated, without mincing words, that Whedon had been “abusive, unprofessional and completely unacceptable” during the filming of the movie, and also accused producer Geoff Johns and DC Films president Walter Hamada of covering up his behavior.
In addition, Fisher also alleged that Whedon’s behavior had been the reason for his dismissal from the yet-to-be-released The Flash movie.
Fisher’s allegations led to an investigation by Warner Bros. which terminated its relationship with the director in December 2020, without commenting on the veracity of the allegations. However, Fisher stood by her accusations and continued to speak publicly about her negative experience working with Whedon. And he has not been the only one.
After Fisher, much of the main cast of the film has joined her statements. Among other things, it has been discovered that Whedon went so far as to threaten Gal Gadot with destroying her career if she refused to declaim the dialogue of a scene as it was written, since he had changed it a little.
On this, Whedon has stated that he was misunderstood when he said he would “tie her to a rail,” and said the following, “I don’t threaten people. Who does that? English is not their native language, and I tend to be quite flowery in my speech.” But she hasn’t been the only one to come out swinging either.
Ben Affleck, in a recent interview, has spoken at length about it:
“From the production to the bad decisions to the horrible personal tragedy, ending up with the most monstrous taste in my mouth… I was going to direct a Batman one, but Justice League made me say, ‘I’m out. I don’t want to do any of this ever again. I’m not the right guy. It was the worst experience I’ve ever seen in a business that’s full of shitty experiences. It broke my heart. There was an idea that someone [Joss Whedon] would come in, like, ‘I’ll rescue you and we’ll do 60 days of shooting and I’ll write all about what you’ve got. I’ve got the secret.’ And it wasn’t the secret. It was difficult.”
Undoubtedly, all this has ended up leading Joss Whedon to a complex place. He’s still on the fence and has declared that the Justice League actors are the worst cast he’s ever encountered, but when the river flows, the waters flow… and everything seems to indicate that the statements of abuse are very real.
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