Ezra Miller role recast following string of controversies

Eric Bauza has taken over the role of mad scientist D A Sinclair in the second season of ‘Invincible’

Ezra Miller’s role in the animated superhero series Invincible has been recast, with Eric Bauza taking over voicing mad scientist D A Sinclair for the show’s second season.

Miller, 31, is known for playing the lead role in DC superhero film The Flash and for becoming embroiled in a string of controversies and legal troubles.

In season one of Invincible Miller, who uses they/them pronouns, lent their voice to Sinclair, a rogue scientist who murders humans and turns them into robots known as ReAnimen.

When the villainous character returned in season two, which is currently airing on Amazon Prime Video, he was voiced by actor Eric Bauza, 44, whose other credits include X-Men ‘97 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Miller’s legal troubles date back to 2020, when a video surfaced on Twitter that appeared to show the actor choking a woman at a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland. No charges were ever brought against Miller over the incident.

The actor was also accused of grooming and “psychologically manipulating, physically intimidating and endangering the safety and welfare” of 18-year-old indigenous activist Tokata Iron Eyes.

Ezra Miller attends the premiere of ‘The Flash’ in 2023 (AFP via Getty Images)

In an interview with The Independent, the teenager’s father claimed Miller supplied them with alcohol, marijuana and LSD during their friendship, which dates back to when Iron Eyes was 12. Tokata Iron Eyes vehemently denied allegations that they were abused or groomed by the actor.

In May 2022, Miller was charged with alleged alcohol theft in the state of Vermont. Local police said in a statement that they had received a complaint that several bottles of alcohol had been stolen from an address in County Rd in Stamford on 1 May this year.

The actor issued an apology in August 2022, explaining that they had been “suffering complex mental health issues”. At the premiere of The Flash last year, Miller thanked the DC team – including James Gunn and Peter Safran, Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Warner Bros Film Group bosses Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy – for “your grace and discernment and care in the context of my life”.

The actor also thanked them for “bringing this moment to fruition”, seemingly addressing the film’s many delays amid a threat of a boycott by fans.

In a three-star review of the first season of Invincible, The Independent’s Louis Chilton wrote: “Invincible often seems derivative; perhaps its ideas were more groundbreaking in the original early-2000s comics. Some of its characters are unapologetic parodies (the Batman facsimile ‘Darkwing’, for example), and you could easily go through picking out elements or story ideas that have cropped up in Watchmen, or The Incredibles, or Sky High, or Misfits.

“But there are still some good bones to its premise, and just enough subversiveness to let you ignore the fact this is a story you’ve seen a hundred times before.”