The Ezra Miller situation continues to get darker. I’ve tried to keep this site out of the worst of it, but it’s getting tough to ignore. Their violent altercations in the past are still fresh in mind, but recent allegations of grooming a 12-year-old girl are the latest and most disturbing, especially as they have made it difficult to be found by authorities. Miller has since deleted their social media accounts, but not before mocking law enforcement. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery is taking heat for not addressing the situation caused the star of The Flash, a film they’ve invested a lot of time and money into.
The studio’s hand may be forced soon enough. Deadline reports Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Laslav is eyeing potential options. After years of development, The Flash is finally set to arrive in 2023, but what happens in the rollout and then post-release? It would be difficult to minimize Miller’s role in the film, but then you can’t bring someone with his track record on a national press tour. One potential option is to release the movie as an HBO Max exclusive rather than theatrical, taking the $200M loss on the chin but saving a lot of public scorn.
Or, as one source says, they can just hope shit doesn’t blow up any further…
“There is no winning in this for Warner Bros. […] This is an inherited problem for Zaslav. The hope is that the scandal will remain at a low level before the movie is released, and hope for the best to turn out.”
Sources also state Warner Bros. “won’t likely keep Miller in the Flash role in future DC films.” That should be obvious but in today’s world you never really know what’s gonna happen. It does echo recent reports that WB had decided to put a halt to any plans involving Miller. But to remove him would cause other potential headaches. Do you delay The Flash then maybe add a post-credits scene explaining Barry Allen’s disappearance while setting up a new hero? That would be the way I’d go.
The Flash opens in June 2023, but I think we’ll know more long before then.
