After years of holding back, for reasons unknown, Justice League cast member Ray Fisher decided yesterday was the day to officially call out Joss Whedon for the way the replacement director allegedly treated cast and crew on the JL set. Fisher pulled no punches, using terms like “gross” and “abusive” in a Tweet that made the rounds. Following the statement, there was a renewed call in the fanbase for Fisher to receive the Cyborg solo movie he once was promised, and at least one director threw his arm cannon into the ring.
This was not the only Tweet linking Sleight and Sweetheart director J.D. Dillard to a potential Cyborg feature film. Oscar winner Matthew A. Cherry (Hair Love) also linked the genre director to the standalone Cyborg film, and somehow, it feels like the wheels are turning to make this movie happen.
How did we get here? Well, Justice League was meant to introduce characters like Cyborg (Ray Fisher), The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa) to the DCEU, then spin them off into their own feature films. Momoa got his, and Miller is about to get his (if everything stays on track). But Fisher is still waiting for a continuation of his character, and nothing appears to be on the horizon as of right now.
By most accounts, Cyborg’s character arc changed the most when Joss Whedon took over for Zack Snyder in 2017. Snyder left the project for personal reasons, and Whedon conducted a series of reshoots to change the tone of the Justice League movie. Snyder has said on record that Cyborg is the “heart” of his story, and fans will get to see that restored version when Zack Snyder’s Justice League reaches HBO Max in 2021.
But what of the Cyborg movie? If Warner Bros. does decide to move ahead with it – and this could be announced at DC’s planned FanDome event, scheduled for August 22 – then JD Dillard would be a fantastic choice to helm the movie. Dillard burst onto the scene with his sci-fi street-magician thriller Sleight bowled over audiences at the Sundance Film Festival. He followed it up with Sweetheart, an isolation thriller starring Kiersey Clemons, that absolutely solidified him as a director to watch moving forward.
Hey, isn’t Clemons supposed to play Iris West in Zack Snyder’s Justice League alongside Ray Fisher and Ezra Miller?
Right now, though, we remain in a holding pattern. DC and Warner Bros. have a full slate of movies that they are developing, including Aquaman 2, Shazam 2, a Black Adam movie with The Rock, and Robert Pattinson’s interpretation of The Batman. These movies are branching away from the universe created by Zack Snyder, except for Ezra Miller’s The Flash… which is supposed to be a Flashpoint story, and could introduce a multiverse. Is there a new Cyborg movie waiting in that multiverse? Or could HBO Max open the door for Cyborg and Ben Affleck’s Batman movies to land on the streaming platform? There’s a world of potential, so let’s see how it all plays out.
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