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Season 2, Episode 5 of The Boys took a low-key jab at Justice League director Joss Whedon. And after seeing A-Train’s (Jessie Usher) storyline in the episode, fans couldn’t help but compare it to Ray Fisher’s account of the Justice League reshoots and how the director treated him. 

[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for The Boys, Season 2, Episode 5.]

Jessie T. Usher in 'The Boys'
Jessie T. Usher in ‘The Boys’ | Jasper Savage/Amazon

What happened on the Sept. 18 episode of ‘The Boys’?

In “We Gotta Go Now,” the fifth episode of season 2, The Supes are filming their big movie, Dawn of the Seven. After Maeve (Dominique McElligott) finishes shooting a cringe-worthy scene, Homelander (Antony Starr) watches the clip back with her. And when she confronts him about the changes in the script, he replies, “This new Joss rewrite really sings, huh?”

Later, A-Train, who is being pushed out of The Seven for using Compound V, approaches the movie’s director with an open-ended rewrite of his big exit scene. The director refuses, so A-Train confronts new Vought exec Ashley Barrett (Colbie Minifie) about the scene, she threatens to fire him. 

‘The Boys’ showrunner addresses the Joss reference

The Homelander/Maeve scene in episode 5 is an obvious reference to director Joss Whedon’s reshoots of Justice League. The director has been widely criticized for making unwelcome changes to Zack Snyder’s original vision for the film. And he has also been accused of mistreating people on set by actor Ray Fisher. 

But according to The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke, the reference wasn’t meant to be a jab. “We weren’t making any particular comment,” he told Collider. “I have no particular opinion on any version of any cut of any superhero movie.”

“It’s just more that Joss is the most well-known name of a guy who writes and rewrites superhero movies,” Kripke added. “And so, we tipped our hat to Joss Whedon. I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan. Buffy‘s one of the best shows ever made.”

Fans find parallels between A-Train and Ray Fisher

Fisher, who portrays Cyborg in Justice League, has been critical of Whedon’s behavior on set. And he’s called out producers Jon Berg and Geoff John’s for enabling him. 

Fisher claimed that after trying to talk to Whedon about various issues, including how he believes his Black character should be portrayed, he was rudely dismissed. And he also suggested that Johns threatened to kill his career in the industry when he appraoched him with his grievances. 

So, with that “Joss” reference and A-Train’s storyline in the Sept. 18 episode of The Boys, fans couldn’t help but notice a similarity with Fisher’s experiences on the set of Justice League.  

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“Did anybody else see a massive parallel between A-Trains storyline and the recent stories about Ray Fisher on the set of Justice League?” one fan wrote on Reddit. “Homelander literally says “The Joss Rewrite is looking great” and reports from WB allege that Ray Fisher (Cyborg) brought a set of script revisions to Joss Whedon which were all ignored.”

“The A-Train parts also reminds me of how Jon Berg accuses Ray Fisher of refusing to read the lines,” another Redditor wrote. “Perhaps some of the writers knew what went on during the JL reshoots since this episode was shot before the Ray Fisher thing started.” 

Kripke hasn’t revealed whether or not these similarities between A-Train and Fisher are intentional. But seeing how closely the show parodies the DC universe, it wouldn’t come as a surprise. 

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