The Flash movie's delays and many, many controversies explained
Every time it looked like The Flash might actually make it to cinemas, the Scarlet Speedster was tripped up by yet another controversy or delay or controversy-led delay.
Between Ezra Miller's well-publicised legal troubles and various issues behind the scenes, fans started to fear that The Flash would faceplant into asphalt and be retired for good, yet here we are, closer than ever to seeing Barry once again on the big screen.
It's been an exhausting journey mired by all kinds of issues, but finally, it really does look like The Flash movie is actually going to happen after all. And yes, Ezra Miller is still set to play Barry Allen following his appearances in Justice League and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, not to mention cameos in Arrow and Suicide Squad.
Join us here at Digital Spy as we speed through the movie's timeline and look back on every roadblock that slowed The Flash down up until this point.
2014
Various attempts to make a Flash movie have circulated since John Wesley Shipp took the scarlet spandex off one last time in his '90s show. However, it wasn't until the success of Superman's Man of Steel that Warner Bros finally made headway on the project.
In October 2014, the studio announced a huge slate of DC films to compete with Marvel, including Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, two Justice League films, Shazam, Cyborg, and yep, you guessed it; The Flash.
Ezra Miller was announced to play the lead, and a release date of March 23 2018 was even put forward. Oh, how naive we all were.
In hindsight, it's interesting to note that this announcement came just one week before The Flash TV series began on The CW. And now here we are, nine seasons later, with the show ending before Miller's film makes it to cinemas.
2015
The following year, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were considered to helm the project following their success with The Lego Movie. But instead, they chose to direct Solo: A Star Wars Story... until they left that movie in the middle of filming, so neither project panned out for them in the end, unfortunately.
Everything was not so awesome for them, it seems.
In October 2015, Warner Bros enlisted author Seth Grahame-Smith to take over The Flash movie in what would have been his directorial debut. Before that, he was best known for writing the books Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Shockingly enough, things didn't pan out with him either.
2016
Two years after the film was first announced, Warner Bros moved the release up a week early to March 16, 2018, which was pretty bold given how Seth Grahame-Smith had departed the project due to creative differences.
Three months later, Dope director Rick Famuyiwa signed on to take over and it was under his eye that Kiersey Clemons and Billy Crudup joined the cast as Iris West and Barry Allen's father Henry Allen, respectively.
Cameos were filmed to introduce them both onscreen in Justice League, but only Daddy Allen made the original cut. Clemons' role wasn't seen until Zack Snyder's Justice League restored her scenes for the new version in 2021.
Famuyiwa seemed like a dead cert compared to everyone who had come before. He even appeared to promote the project at Comic-Con that year, but then he dropped out soon after, also citing creative differences as the reason for his departure.
Amidst all this and the negative fan reaction to films like Suicide Squad and Dawn of Justice, Warner Bros hired King Arthur's Joby Harold to rewrite the script. The Tomb Raider reboot was subsequently given The Flash's release date and then The Flash languished without a new one for another three years. [Insert joke about not being so speedy here].
2017
During the hunt for a new director, Warner Bros decided to announce that The Flash movie would be based on a key comic book storyline named Flashpoint.
This reveal came as part of a new slate revealed at San Diego Comic-Con that year, which also included Shazam, Suicide Squad 2, The Batman, Justice League Dark, Wonder Woman 2, Green Lantern Corps and Batgirl. (RIP Batgirl.)
In the comics, Flashpoint starts with Barry racing back in time to prevent his mother's murder. However, the present timeline is warped as a consequence of his actions, so The Flash has to go back and set things right.
As anyone who's watched the show will already know, Barry loves to screw with the timeline, but for Warner Bros, an adaptation of this story represented a perfect opportunity to reset their entire superhero universe, just like DC did in the comics.
That plan still appears to be in place now, but as you probably guessed, there were a few more obstacles yet to come before any of this could actually unfold on screen.
2018
Stop us if you've heard this one before, but in 2018, Warner Bros brought in new directors to helm the movie. This time round though, it was filmmaking duo John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein who signed on following the success of their comedy, Game Night.
Filming was supposed to start the following year, but Miller's commitments to Fantastic Beast: The Secrets of Dumbledore Expelliarmused that idea out the window.
2019
In 2019, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Miller was unhappy with the lighter approach that Daley and Goldstein were taking with the film's tone. In a bid to stay involved but still put their own spin on things, Miller teamed up with legendary comic book writer Grant Morrison to create their own pitch.
The studio rejected it though, and then everything changed again anyway when Daley and Goldstein left due to — say it with us — "creative differences." It was around this time that Birds of Prey scriptwriter Christina Hodgson was attached to develop the script.
2019 was also the year that Andy Muschietti became the fourth director to take on this project, and as it stands, he's now the final one too because the film is officially in the can, almost ready to go.
Muschietti was asked to join following the success of his IT adaptations, and with his involvement confirmed, Warner Bros set a new release date of July 1, 2022.
2020
Things finally looked like they were on track for The Flash, but then every other film followed suit with delays of their own, this time due to the impact of COVID-19.
Despite this huge setback, Warner Bros inexplicably moved The Flash's release date forward from July 1, 2022, to June 3, 2022. No reason was given, although we suspect someone might have travelled back and messed with the timeline, Barry Allen-style.
Later that year, Warner Bros went 180 and delayed The Flash again from June 3, 2022 to November 4, 2022, but that was the least of the film's troubles.
In April, 2020, a video surfaced online which appeared to show Miller choke a woman in Reykjavik, Iceland. A source later confirmed to Variety that this was "a serious altercation" and Miller was escorted off the bar premises right after.
Two years later, the woman from the clip told Variety that she was joking about getting into a fight with Miller, but then her friend apparently escalated the situation.
"My friend didn't have to say that," the unnamed woman recalled. "It was just a joke, obviously — but [Miller] took that literally and got super mad and came running outside."
This would come to be the first of many involvements with the law for Miller in the years that followed.
2021
2021 was a biggie for Flash fans because this was the year that Warner Bros finally shared a teaser for the film at their own event, DC FanDome.
While Miller featured heavily, of course, the trailer also teased our first look at Michael Keaton's return as Batman and also Sasha Calle’s introduction as Supergirl. Keaton's voiceover played a big role here, making us all kinds of nostalgic for his original Batman run with director Tim Burton.
2022
Prepare yourselves, because this was the year that things got real messy.
In a since-deleted Instagram video posted on January 27, 2022, Miller appeared to threaten Ku Klux Klan members in North Carolina.
"Look, if y'all want to die, I suggest just killing yourselves with your own guns. OK?" Miller said in the video, (via The Hollywood Reporter). "Otherwise, keep doing exactly what you're doing right now — and you know what I am talking about — then, you know, we'll do it for you, if that's really what you want. Talk to you soon, OK. Bye."
On March 28, Miller was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and harassment following two separate incidents that took place at a karaoke bar in Hawai'i.
According to the Hawai'i Police Department (via People), "Miller began yelling obscenities and at one point grabbed the microphone from a 23-year-old woman singing karaoke and later lunged at a 32-year-old man playing darts. The bar owner asked Miller to calm down several times."
A month later, Miller pleaded no contest to the disorderly conduct charge, and they were sentenced with a $500 fine. Two additional counts against Miller were dismissed by the judge "with prejudice," including a separate traffic-related complaint.
On March 29, two Hilo residents filed for a temporary restraining order against Miller. A court document obtained by People claims that Miller harassed and threatened them both.
It was alleged that Miller "burst into the bedroom of the petitioner(s) and threatened" the alleged male victim by "saying 'I will bury you and your slut wife.'" Claims that Miller stole some of their personal belongings were also made, but two weeks later, the case was dismissed by a judge per the couple's request (according to Associated Press).
But wait. There's more.
On April 19, Miller was arrested and charged with second-degree assault following an incident in Pāhoa:
"During the course of their investigation, police determined that the individual, later identified as Ezra Miller, became irate after being asked to leave and reportedly threw a chair, striking a 26-year-old female on the forehead, resulting in an approximate half-inch cut," read the HPD news release.
In June that same year, TMZ reported claims that Miller had been controlling a young woman named Tokata Iron Eyes since they met in 2016.
The parents claimed that Miller groomed their child from the age of 12, explaining that Miller exhibited a "pattern of corrupting a minor" with "cult-like and psychologically manipulative, controlling behaviour."
Gibson, as Tokata later chose to go by, denied the claims in a statement (via Rolling Stone), but then another similar case sprung up right after when a mother and her 12-year-old child from Greenfield, Massachusetts were granted a temporary harassment prevention order against Miller (via The Daily Beast).
On top of all that, Miller was also accused of burglarising a home in Vermont and concerns were also raised over a family of four who were staying with Ezra at their Vermont farm.
On August 15th, Miller shared an apology for their recent behaviour (via People):
"Having recently gone through a time of intense crisis, I now understand that I am suffering complex mental health issues and have begun ongoing treatment. I want to apologise to everyone that I have alarmed and upset with my past behaviour. I am committed to doing the necessary work to get back to a healthy, safe and productive stage in my life."
Throughout all this drama, Miller remained attached to The Flash project. As reported by The Wrap on 6 October, 2022, Miller "shot a day of pickups" in early October on the Warner Bros lot after Miller and their agent had a "very positive" meeting about the future of The Flash with Warner Bros execs in August.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros delayed The Flash yet again, moving it back to June 23, 2023. It seems that COVID-19 related delays created a build-up for VFX work across the whole DC slate, so it wasn't just The Flash that was impacted for once.
But by the end of the year, things switched up once more, bringing the film's release date forward by a week to June 16, 2023, where it still remains.
More controversy hit The Flash movie towards the end of 2022, but it had nothing to do with Miller this time. A planned Superman cameo was cut due to Henry Cavill’s exit from the role following the removal of Gal Gadot's cameo as Wonder Woman.
This is all part of new plans for the DCU and Superman in particular that have come about since James Gunn’s appointment as co-CEO of DC Studios.
2023
We're not too far into 2023 just yet, but there's still more drama where Miller's concerned. On January 13, 2023, The Flash star pleaded guilty to misdemeanour unlawful trespassing in Vermont where they began their one-year probation.
It's not all bad news though. On January 31, 2023, James Gunn revealed his new plans for the DCU in full, and during the presentation he described Andy Muschietti's take on The Flash as "one of the greatest superhero movies ever made".
Using Flashpoint as a new launchpad, the film will be key to the "unified" approach the studio has decided to take moving forward.
With that in mind, we can probably expect to see Miller continue in the role of Barry Allen for many years to come while co-stars such as Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot become ghosts of DC past.
The Flash movie will finally appear in cinemas on 16 June. We think.
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