DC’s upcoming film The Flash has been the subject of almost as much on-screen drama as it’s had off-screen, most of it due to the PR nightmare that Ezra Miller and their personal behavior represented for the studio. The actor was arrested multiple times last year, was accused of grooming underage kids, and was even charged with three counts of burglary, to which they ultimately pleaded guilty and accepted a one-year probation.
And though it’s been widely assumed that Miller would be parting ways with the studio after The Flash comes out, a recent quote from the director may indicate otherwise. Speaking in a yet-to-be-released episode of the podcast The Discourse (via The Playlist), Andy Muschietti said the following when asked if a potential sequel to The Flash would bring back Miller as the titular character:
“If [a sequel] happens, yes. I don’t think there’s anyone that can play that character as well as they did. The other depictions of the character are great, but this particular vision of the character, they just excelled in doing it. And, as you said, the two Barrys – it feels like a character that was made for them.”
Producer Barbara Muschietti added the following:
“In principal photography, Ezra was brilliant and the most committed and the most professional [actor]. Ezra gave everything for this role – physically, creatively, emotionally. They were absolutely supreme.”
But how realistic is this hypothetical scenario of a sequel to The Flash with Miller attached? Let’s try to read between the lines.
Why Ezra Miller Will Not Be Back as The Flash
With The Flash, Warner Bros. is clearly testing out a (sort of) new marketing strategy — instead of putting their cast and crew to the forefront and everywhere on social media, they are relying on internal hype. They realized early on that they had a potential winner in their hands, and instead of letting Twitter ruin the show for them, they tried to get ahead of the curve and tell the world “This movie is so good! Forget about Ezra Miller, you will want to see this movie!” That helped them build a ton of anticipation, even if it’s just to prove the people that are saying such things wrong.
After high test screening scores leaked last year, studio head David Zaslav started praising The Flash during shareholder meetings, and once James Gunn took over as co-CEO of DC Studios, he called it one of the best superhero movies ever made. He repeated that sentiment on social media when the first official trailer came out in early February; most recently, he called it the best film of the year so far.
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David Zaslav said at CinemaCon that it was the best superhero movie he’d ever seen. If that wasn’t enough, they decided to screen the film early in Las Vegas but only allow social media reactions (which are rarely negative in general). And if that wasn’t enough, they showed the movie to none other than Tom Cruise, whose reaction was suspiciously leaked to the media: “Everything you want in a movie” and “This is the kind of movie we need now.”
Muschietti’s comments about not recasting Miller are just part of that PR spin to try to make the production of The Flash look as normal as possible, and part of that is the plans for future movies. They also can’t say that they are not going to do another film in this universe yet, because despite James Gunn and Peter Safran announcing their multi-year plan for the forthcoming DCU, Warner Bros. Discovery has a few movies to market this year that they don’t want to look like lame ducks.
So yes, as long as we are leading up to The Flash, everything is possible and all options are open. But let’s not kid ourselves here. Miller will not be back in this role anytime soon. It’s interesting how Gunn’s response to this question less than a month ago was also very different from Muschietti’s.
The Flash opens in theaters on June 16, 2023. What do you think? Are we completely off-base? Is Ezra Miller going to be a part of DC Studios’ plans? How excited are you for The Flash? Do you think it has the potential to become one of the best superhero movies ever, as WBD wants us to think? We wanna hear from you on our social media!
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Source: The Playlist
