WithJustice Leagueopening in theaters just hours from now, the film has been part of a mild controversy this week, withRotten Tomatoes withholding its TomatoMeter score. The score already leaked, standing at 46% rotten. While that is certainly not the score Warner Bros. was hoping for, another controversy has surfaced. Filmmaker Joss Whedon, who reworked the script and directed the reshoots after Zack Snyder backed away from the project due to a family tragedy, liked a tweet that bashes the movie’s villain, Steppenwolf. This has not gone unnoticed by DC fans, who have taken the director to task on Twitter, not only for liking a tweet that disses the villain, but for not publicly offering any support for the movie whatsoever.
The tweet in question that Joss Whedon liked came from Vanity Fair critic Joanna Robinson, who stated on the social media platform that, “Steppenwolfis the worst comic book movie villain of all time and not even Malekith the Accursed comes close,” referencing the oft-criticized villain in Marvel’sThor: The Dark World. A Twitter user’s likes can be seen by anyone, including DC fans, who became quite enraged when they learned that Joss Whedon, who has a writing credit onJustice League, essentially endorsed a tweet that tears into the villain of the movie he actually worked on. Here’s what one fan, Twitter user JesabelRaay, had to say in her tweet, which included a screenshot of the Likes section on Joss Whedon’s Twitter that showed him liking Joanna Robinson’s tweet.
“[Joss], you are absolutely repulsive. How dare you even like this tweet? Your fingerprints are all over this film & you have yet to voice out any kind of support for it. You are despicable & you have singlehandedly ruined @ZackSnyder’s #JusticeLeague.”
Joss Whedon also liked Joanna Robinson’s tweet in response to another user, who stated that Steppenwolf reminded him of Tim Curry’s character inLegend, where Joanna Robinson stated that it “made it worse.” One fan even called the director out forpraising Thor: Ragnarokmore than he has praisedJustice League, which is in fact true, since he did sent out a tweet in late October after catching an early screening ofThor: Ragnarok, which he called a “modern masterpiece” while praising director Taika Waititi. Since the filmmaker has still yet to say anything publicly aboutJustice League, some fans clearly think that his silence speaks volumes about what he really thinks about the movie, and his liking of a tweet tearing into thevillain of Justice Leaguehasn’t helped matters much either.
One fan, Navinpraveen93, even brought DC Films presidents Geoff Johns and Jon Berg into the conversation, callingdirector Joss Whedon, “an absolute disgrace to DC fandom,” while another, fan, Juan Cieri, called for Warner Bros. to fire Joss Whedon from theBatgirlmovie he’s directing. There are also others, though, who came to the embattled director’s defense, stating that he has the right to criticize any movie, even one that he worked on. you’re able to take a look at a selection of tweets discussing this Joss Whedon controversy, beginning with theJesabelRaay Twitterphoto that started it all.
