Warner Bros announces The Flash release will see light of day despite Ezra Miller controversy

Movie studio had failed to comment on film’s status – until now

Jacob Stolworthy
Monday 08 August 2022 22:39 BST
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Warner Bros has finally commented on the status of The Flash following recent controversies surrounding Ezra Miller.

Miller completed work on the project years ago, but has since been embroiled in controversies relating to their conduct.

Until now, Warner Bros, the studio behind DC projects, had failed to comment on whether the alleged conduct would affect the $200m (£164m) film’s release plans.

Discussion of these plans circulated once more this week after it was announced that the release of Batgirl, a film starring Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, was being cancelled entirely despite filming being complete.

However, during the Warner Bros Discovery‘s Q2 earnings call on Thursday (4 August), Variety reports CEO David Zaslav revealed the studio was pushing forward with The Flash.

While not mentioning Miller, Zaslav said of The Flash, as well as other DC films Black Adam and Shazam! 2: “We’ve seen them, we think they’re terrific, and we think we can make them even better.”

He said he’s “very excited about them”.

Miller’s controversies began when, in 2020, a video surfaced on Twitter that appeared to show the actor choking a woman in a bar in Reykjavik. The woman, who remained anonymous, said of the alleged incident to Variety : “I think it’s just fun and games – but then it wasn’t.”

No charges were ever brought against the actor. Miller never publicly commented on the claims.

In 2022, Miller went on a social media rant aimed at what they called the “Beulaville chapter” of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina, telling them to “kill themselves”. The Southern Poverty Law Centre, a civil rights organisation that monitors hate groups, said that it wasn’t aware of any Klan activity in the area.

Ezra Miller completed work on ‘The Flash in 2021

Miller was then accused of grooming and “psychologically manipulating, physically intimidating and endangering the safety and welfare” of an 18-year-old from North Dakota.

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In an interview with The Independent, the teenager’s father claimed that Miller supplied them with alcohol, marijuana and LSD during their friendship, which dated back to when they were 12.

Miller filmed The Flash in 2021.

Elsewhere during the earnings call, Zaslav elaborated on why the studio decided to cancel Batgirl, a decsion which led to widespread criticism.

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