Joss Whedon Finally Breaks His Silence On JUSTICE LEAGUE; "Not Every Superhero Movie Can Be THE AVENGERS"
Joss Whedon took over the reigns of Justice League from Zack Snyder and the results were...interesting, to say the least. Now, the filmmaker has briefly commented on his work on the DC Comics adaptation...
Over the weekend, Joss Whedon made an appearance at Awesome Con in Washington, D.C. for a Q&A panel which touched on everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to The Avengers...and Justice League! After months of silence from the director (not including some thinly veiled digs on social media), Whedon finally opened up about the movie and was surprisingly open about the whole thing.
While he clearly didn't want to get too much into what happened, the filmmaker did touch on being brought in at such a late stage, dealing with Henry Cavill's facial hair, and what he hopes to see next from the heroes. Surprisingly, he also made a fair few comparisons to his work on The Avengers!
"It wasn't an easy task," Whedon admitted when asked about being brought in to rework Justice League. "Adding scenes to completely rejig a movie which was near enough done was one thing but directing those in the time I was given made the whole process an arduous and daunting job."
The filmmaker wouldn't get into specifics when it comes to what he added and removed but admitted that it was an awful lot. "Joss Whedon's Justice League is definitely different to Zack Snyder's Justice League. Then again, this film is really both of ours as I'm sure our respective versions would be totally unique beasts which weren't...this [Laughs]. I know a lot of fans have very specific ideas about what Justice League should be but when you're working with people who thought it would be cool to have Gal [Gadot] wear a Batsuit in the final act, there's really only so much you can do."
Unfortunately, Whedon didn't elaborate on what else the studio was looking to add but did briefly touch on moustache-gate. "[Laughs] Oh man, I have seen some sights during my career but that waxed back moustache takes the biscuit. I'm not sure how long it would have taken Henry to grow it back but we couldn't chop it off so I guess you can put Superman's face down to being damaged by Doomsday. We had limited time and money and it was that or have him look like an 80s pornstar."
As for where Justice League ultimately went wrong, Whedon seemed to grow antsy and attempted to wrap the conversation up. "Look, I love these characters and the studio...the studio loves a hit. Ultimately, none of us walked away happy but it is what it is and not every superhero movie can be The Avengers. We struck gold with that one and I guess the world of DC is better suited to TV."
"The team exists in the DC Universe now," he concluded. "I'm not sure they'll ever reform but we put them out there and what comes next isn't up to me. I tried but something went wrong somewhere and I guess the movie was a little too much Justice League and not enough Avengers. That movie was just so damn good. You guys saw it right? [Laughs] I really made an effort with those two."
As for why his Batgirl movie didn't become a reality, Whedon would only say, "I guess [Warner Bros.] weren't ready for boobs in a Batsuit. [Laughs]" He then walked off the stage in his scruffy Avengers shirt giggling to himself about something we'll probably never actually know the full story about.
So, the filmmaker has finally broken his silence about Justice League and his remarks certainly leave us with food for thought! What do you guys think? As always, share your thoughts in the usual place and if you're interested in watching the whole panel, be sure to click on the source link above.