Warner Bros Insiders Believe The Flash Movie Is On Par With 'The Dark Knight' And Ezra Miller Could Be Safe After All
Jason LaVeris. Getty Images.You can't help but love all the wildness that Warner Bros. has brought us with DC movies lately as they try to sort out their vision for the future. One consistent piece of buzz that's persisted amid the chaos, however, is how gigantic of a hit execs believe they have with The Flash, which is due out in June. After being in development hell for about a decade, the film finally got made, only for the upheaval in leadership at DC Studios and Ezra Miller's meltdowns threatening to derail the expensive superhero tentpole.
Now that Miller sought out help for what they called "complex mental health issues", the waters have calmed and anticipation is beginning to build for one of the most intriguing comic book movies in recent memory. In a 2023 box office preview from Variety on Thursday, though, this little chunk of information was impossible to ignore:
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"Director Andy Muschietti is hot off of the 'It' movies, Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck are returning as Batman, and the plot hinges on time travel and multiverses, two of the hottest things going in superhero storytelling. Studio insiders haven't been this excited for Warner Bros. superhero movie since 'The Dark Knight' movies. In fact, almost everything about 'The Flash' points to a massive summer sensation. Almost."
Seriously, out of whose ass did WB pull out this alleged miracle of movie magic?
Andy Muschietti, take a fucking bow if you have, in fact, managed the Ezra Miller pseudo-real-life-Joker situation this deftly and crafted a masterpiece of superhero cinema. Guess those It movies came in handy in that regard!
You can see in the summarized blurb about the film above: The Flash's story has so much to do with the multiverse and time travel. It's such a gift that the objective all along was to adapt some form of the Flashpoint comic book arc, because at this point, DC Studios can recast, mix and match and reshape their connected universe of films any way they want.
…That is, if the movie's good. Judging by this latest buzz, it most definitely is. You don't compare shit to The Dark Knight lightly. Folks at WB wouldn't be leaking information like this just to stir things up. You look like a full-blown idiot if The Flash is bad, and suffers a steep drop-off at the box office in its second week. I'm blown away by how confident everyone internally seems to be about a project that seemed forever doomed, and once it was actually executed, its main star was, by all accounts, going off the rails.
Speaking of said star, Variety released a report yesterday outlining the studio's power struggle with Black Adam himself Dwayne Johnson. It also referred to general plan that DC creative chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran intend to present in the next week, and highlighted how Miller's job security is far better the anyone could've imagined given their myriad of off-set incidents from this past year:
"As for what else Gunn and Safran have planned for DC’s future, sources describe it as a broad but not blanket reset. At this point, nothing is ruled out. Given that Miller has stayed out of trouble since beginning mental health treatment in the summer, some executives are amenable to continuing with the actor as the world-saving speedster after The Flash bows on June 16."
Ezra Miller was legitimately making Mad Libs-worthy headlines amid multiple arrests not long ago. They seemed in legitimate danger of throwing their entire career away, never mind suiting up ever again as The Flash. To reiterate, that's yet another strong indicator of just how fucking good The Flash seems to be.
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While I do prefer DC to Marvel, I'm by no means a hater of the latter. I just feel like Marvel has gotten a tad stale and oversaturated to some degree. That's partially a byproduct of churning out so many profitable hits. Talk about uptown problems! The fact that DC has put out fewer, less cogent and intertwining movies automatically piques my interest more. It's sort of a combination of morbid curiosity and an inferior supply of content compared to Marvel that get me going about DC-related stuff these days, but hey, better than a passive, somewhat indifferent reaction, right?
Maybe casting aside Henry Cavill's Superman in favor of a younger Clark Kent, sidelining Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman for at least three years and having multiple Batmen in the mix will come back to bite WB in the ass. Then again, assuming The Flash is a mega hit, Miller or another capable Flash actor can carry that franchise going forward, and the ongoing Joaquin Phoenix Joker and Battinson series remain intact, DC Studios may really be on to something here.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok
Check out My Mom's Basement and their 2023 preview for DC, Marvel and Star Wars!