Gal Gadot’s experience with Joss Whedon “wasn’t the best”

Gal Gadot’s Justice League costar Ray Fisher (Cyborg) accused director Joss Whedon of “abusive” behavior on set. Now, Gadot weighs in.

Wonder Woman 1984, the long-in-coming sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman, is coming out on Christmas Day…in both theaters and on HBO Max. It’s the first of several movies Warner Bros. will be releasing this way, which has made more than a few directors very angry.

But Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman, thinks that this is the right move for her movie, at least. “Before the pandemic, I would’ve flipped out and had a tantrum and fought super hard [for a traditional theatrical release], she told the Los Angeles Times. “But in pandemic times, you just don’t know. I hope that, once the pandemic is over, all these wonderful big movies with great filmmakers and stars will go to theaters. I can’t see studios making tentpole movies just for the streamers because it’s a 360 experience to go to a theater and experience that. I certainly hope that, once the pandemic is over, things will go back on track.”

Director Patty Jenkins basically agreed. “Of course we made the movie to be seen on the big screen — we shot on film for IMAX and had Hans Zimmer scoring the entire film. Of course this movie should be in theaters, and it will be. But the fact that it’s going to be on HBO Max domestically just means that more people are going to be able to watch it in America. And nowadays, I’m really in a place where I just want people to see what we did.”

"In this case, I’m just happy that we’re releasing the film. I felt pretty good about releasing it this way because we’ve learned that it’s very hard to predict the future, and there were no good options. But I’m disappointed that [Warner Bros. is] not waiting and seeing what happens for the other films that they’re doing it with. In our case, we are the most overdue movie, so I really think now was the time to release our film. This was a special case."

So Jenkins adds her voice to that of Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, Zack Snyder and others who disapprove of what Warner Bros., although her rhetoric isn’t as rabid as, say, Nolan, who really went to town on the studio.

And that’s just one of the movie-related controversies that cropped up at Warner Bros. in 2020. There’s also Justice League cast member Ray Fisher (Cyborg) accusing replacement director Joss Whedon of “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” behavior on set. Up until now, Gadot hadn’t weighed in on that, but she finally broke her silence:

"I wasn’t there with the guys when they shot with Joss Whedon — I had my own experience with [him], which wasn’t the best one, but I took care of it there and when it happened. I took it to the higher-ups and they took care of it. But I’m happy for Ray to go up and say his truth."

For the record, Whedon has left his HBO show The Nevers, citing exhaustion. But plenty of people (including Fisher) suspect that his exit was part of the “remedial action” Warner Bros. took as a result of their investigation into his conduct. We don’t know the details, and time will tell if we learn more of if this scandal is left behind in the accursed year of 2020.

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