While it’s the ending of 2023 that will officially mark the end of the struggling DCEU with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the seeds of its failure were sown back in 2015 following the failure of BVS. But it was the theatrical version of Justice League, starring Gal Gadot, which marked the final blow to WB’s plans of building a cohesive universe, from which the DCEU never recovered.
Although Joss Whedon was brought in to salvage the project after Zack Snyder’s unfortunate exit following a personal tragedy that struck him, things only worsened from that point. But it wasn’t only the end product that was met with severe backlash, as Whedon’s time on sets was met with intense scrutiny, with Gal Gadot recounting clashing with the director on several occasions.
Gal Gadot Refused to Do the Scene in JL That Degraded Wonder Woman
Returning for the reshoots under Joss Whedon was less than thrilling for almost everyone involved, especially Gal Gadot, who budded heads with the Avengers director throughout the production. But the part that pushed the Fast Five Star off the edge was the scene that involved Ezra Miller’s Flash falling face-first into Wonder Woman’s cleavage, which Gadot refused to partake in. While her body double was brought in to carry out the scene as Whedon intended, the tension between the two kept on upsurging, and Gadot even alleged Whedon threatened to end her career.
“What I had with Joss basically is that he kind of threatened my career and said if I did something he would make my career miserable. I handled it on the spot.”
Although Whedon claimed it was a misunderstanding and blamed the language barrier, Gal Gadot responded to it by stating she understood him perfectly.
Joss Whedon Can’t Be Completely Blamed for JL’s Failure
While nothing concrete can’t be said about Whedon’s onset allegations, Whedon can’t be fully blamed for the abomination that was Justice League. There’s a saying in Hollywood that if you can’t make it good, make it short, and WB went for the second route for the theatrical release. And while the Avengers director initially entered the movie with the intent that he “could help,” he told NYM, Whedon clearly didn’t enjoy his time on the set, which would turn out to be a career killer.
And when WB settled for the 2-hour runtime, it meant the movie would have no follow-up to the Knightmare sequence from BVS, no Flash entering the speed force, and no proper motivations for Steppenwolf.
Even prior to the movie’s release, the director infamously liked a tweet bashing JL‘s villain, exhibiting his disdain for the studio-influenced cut of the movie. And in recent years, Joss Whedon deemed doing JLas “one of the biggest regrets of his life”.
Justice League is available to stream on Max.
