Some shocking news for The Flash fans broke earlier today, as we learned that Hartley Sawyer, who’s played Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man on the hit CW series since season 4, had been fired effective immediately due to a number of offensive tweets of his that had recently resurfaced.
Most of them were of a racist and misogynistic nature and understandably, the network decided they needed to take action. Especially since the whole thing had caused quite a storm on social media.
“Hartley Sawyer will not be returning for season seven of The Flash,” said the statement from The CW, producers Warner Bros. TV and Berlanti Productions and executive producer Eric Wallace that was released via The Hollywood Reporter.
Since the news broke, we’ve had an additional statement from Wallace, but the cast have been keeping pretty quiet. Until now, that is.
Stepping up to break the silence, star Grant Gustin took to Instagram to share Wallace’s aforementioned message, while also explaining that he was “shocked, saddened and angry” when he saw the tweets, adding: “words matter.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBL1mQzFVfj/?utm_source=ig_embed
Though Gustin is the only one from the cast to speak up so far, we imagine most of his colleagues feel the same way and many are still trying to come to terms with the whole thing and figure out the best way to address it in a statement. As such, we expect that we’ll be hearing from the rest of the gang in the coming days.
Likewise, Sawyer has also kept quiet since the news broke, while The CW have yet to explain how they’ll handle his absence in the upcoming season of The Flash. Presumably, he’ll just be written out instead of recasting the role, but as soon as we learn for sure what their plan is, we’ll let you know.
