Things at the home of DC Comics movies, Warner Bros. Discovery, don’t seem too great right this second. The corporation got a lot of heat from fans with the shelving of the completed Batgirl movie, and that anger only seems to be continuing given the status of The Flash movie starring Ezra Miller. Miller has recently been in the news almost constantly for their string of arrests, and the call to recast the Flash/Barry Allen or do something to remove them as been trending online frequently. And instead of making moves to change something, the studio seems to have stuck with Miller.
The Flash is still happening (as of this moment) despite everything happening with Miller. In fact, it was revealed that Miller reportedly filmed reshoots in the midst of their legal struggles and allegations against them, so the studio was, seemingly, at no point thinking of taking Miller out of the movie—given that the reshoots happened this summer and Miller’s public legal problems began in March of this year.
What is happening now, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, is that the studio is working through three very distinct paths, and spoiler alert: None of them are great! The options their source outlined are getting “professional help” for Miller and some kind of interview to explain what’s been going on with them; releasing the movie without involving Miller any further and taking them out of the role entirely, going forward; or actually, finally scrapping the movie outright.
Frankly, I don’t see how any of these options are workable, given the allegations that have been made. If they were to go the route of doing things without Miller, they’d be … relying, seemingly, on the drive for fans to want to see Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton both as Batman, I suppose? To be fair, that is the only thing I care about in this movie at this point. I’m here for Michael Keaton exclusively.
But that doesn’t mean the film should be released as if Miller’s actions aren’t an issue. They’re a very big problem that Warner Bros. has seemingly just ignored and carried on with when there were plenty of chances for them to reconsider what they were doing. Miller began showing erratic behavior in April of 2020 when they seemingly choked a woman. There was plenty of time for them to recast, have a serious conversation about what to do, and plan accordingly prior to Miller’s 2022 actions. Instead, we might end up with option 3.
The Flash entirely canned? More content that fans wanted that could be taken away because of one person? YAY! This option is the one that would truly baffle me given that they seem to love the footage over at Warner Bros. Discovery, according to the recent, frustrating investor call I listened to, and given that they shelved Batgirl, shelving this as well because of Miller (again, when the studio had a choice to reshoot without them or come up with a contingency plan!) seems like more money down the drain than they’d be willing to deal with.
The frustrating thing is that we’ve replaced actors before. It happened with Chris D’Elia in Army of the Dead. It happened with Kevin Spacey in All The Money in the World. Would it bring down the quality that the film currently has? No, because the film currently stars Miller. It’d cost them more money, but in the long run, it could make them a lot of money, especially if they recast Miller with fan-favorite Grant Gustin from The CW’s The Flash television series.
My point is: There are still options that aren’t scrapping the movie entirely or still having Miller in it.
And yet Batgirl wasn’t good enough for them?
Imagine putting any of this effort into getting Batgirl up to the supposed new standards of Warner Bros. Discovery and releasing a movie with a female lead that also brings back Michael Keaton has Batman. Instead of having Batgirl to fall back on, they completely just shelved it, meaning that those of us excited for a future where Michael Keaton is back as the Bat have absolutely nothing, all because of Miller’s actions and because the studio didn’t want to release Batgirl.
This is beyond frustrating, and there’s no real way to fix it! Even if Miller seeks help and makes a statement, they still brought Miller back in the midst of everything happening in their personal life to do reshoots ,which is incredibly bad! They knew what was going on with Miller and didn’t make any moves to maybe try to do anything about it until it became a major PR disaster. Instead, they just scrapped a movie people were excited for (Batgirl) and continued to film The Flash with Miller despite their very public and documented problems.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
Published: Aug 11, 2022 06:15 pm