Andy Muschietti is the man currently tasked with bringing The Flash to the big screen, with a July 2022 release date penciled in. However, if you’ve been tracking development of the Scarlet Speedster’s solo debut, then you’ll know that nothing can be taken for granted. After all, the It director is simply the latest in a long line of filmmakers to have signed onto the project with previous incumbents Seth Grahame-Smith, Rick Famuyiwa and John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein all having departed over the last several years.
The Flash was officially announced in October 2014 but still hasn’t made it in front of cameras yet, with the DCEU undergoing some major changes in that time. Many of the cast members and story threads that were in place the last time we saw Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen in Justice League are no longer in play, as the comic book franchise has undergone a creative overhaul in the post-Zack Snyder era.
There’s been constant speculation that The Flash will be using the Flashpoint storyline to further reboot the DCEU, possibly even as a way to wipe Snyder’s time at the helm from continuity completely. And now, we’ve heard that it might also open the door for Miller himself to be replaced as the title character.
According to our sources – the same ones who told us about the Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk shows being in development for Disney Plus long before they were officially announced, and that Diana will get her Golden Eagle armor in Wonder Woman 1984 – the studio were already planning to bring Wally West into the DCEU, but they’re now hoping to have him replace Barry Allen as the franchise’s main Flash following Miller’s recent controversies.
Indeed, folks are currently petitioning for the actor to be dropped from the role after a video surfaced online of him choking a female fan, which puts Warner Bros. in the same tricky position that Marvel Studios find themselves in after Ant-Man star Evangeline Lilly’s controversial comments on the Coronavirus. It isn’t a good look for the actor, the studio or the DCEU at large, and if the furor doesn’t pass anytime soon, then Miller’s days as Barry Allen could be numbered.
Luckily for WB though, there’s already a replacement waiting in the wings, and while the specifics on how Wally would be introduced remain unclear, we understand that the plan is to have him in The Flash regardless of whether it’s Miller playing Barry or another actor replacing him. Things could go either way right now on that front, we’re told, but after the film, the studio will then slowly shift the focus over to Wally in future projects as he becomes the DCEU’s primary speedster instead of Barry – who’ll either be written out or killed off, depending on what the studio decides.
