Since The summer of 2020, it seems as though there is a recurring pattern with actor Ezra Miller being in the tabloids. The Flash & Fantastic Beasts actor has been accused of choking, fighting in bars in Hawaii, threatening couples & children, giving them drugs, & grooming them. Those are some very serious charges. People have been fired for less.
There has been alot of discourse amongst fans anticipating what to do with The Flash movie coming out next year & what Warner Bros. Discovery should do about their lead. Canceling the movie which has a price Tag of around 250-300 Million dollars in production & marketing costs, has been to discussed & another option is to reshoot & to recast the role. Both would be alot of money but by that same token alot was invested & it wouldn’t be the first time a studio changed an actor before a movie gets released & while movies have been cancelled from release before it hasn’t happened on a project as big as this which features 2 Batmen, Supergirl, & potentially more surprises.
I think there is one resolution that isn’t being considered that would mitigate the PR nightmare Miller inherited onto the studio: Change the name of the movie. If Miller being the star is the problem why not change the focus of the film to something else. I advocate ‘Justice League: Flashpoint.” But calling it simply Flashpoint would at least emphasize the plot more than the actor themselves. There are several different names that can be used.
The reality is that no matter how much this topic trends on social media no matter how many people who are in the know talk to friends in their circles at school or in public & it doesnt matter how many people discover the allegations in this article, it’s still a very small percentage of overall moviegoers. If the movie was going to make 700m before these claims would drop it to maybe 670m. The film needs about 500m to break even. The film itself has to suck for people en masse to skip it, not because of Miller. However, this new merger has a reputation it wants to uphold & perhaps they don’t want actors who are liabilities.
It’s entirely possible they could reshoot the entire movie with a new actor even if it costs them an arm & a leg if it means it’s going to save the movie. We also need go see if there is any possibility that Ezra has simply become an easy target for tabloid material & enough people are gullible to believe all of it. I’ve spoken to several people who believe they’re actually on the run kidnapping a 12 year old girl which is false. They are still a person with a lot of baggage. Even if everything that has been in the tabloids gets debunked in the next few months Miller’s reputation will still be tarnished for years to come.
Then again, there are people in Hollywood who have done far worse than them so it’s entirely possible they will be fine after all this is said & done. It’s also possible Amber Heard stays in Aquaman & The Lost Kingdom even for 10 minutes or less. Because 1 individual shouldn’t deprive you of seeing a film unless you can’t separate the art from the artist which is fine. That person would have to do worse than Heard & Miller combined for me not to at least see it with a free movie pass I own.
The Flash is expected to come out one year from today, barring any new information that comes to light. While Ezra is a problematic individual I also believe their needs to be accountability when journalists spread misinformation or spinning context of what actually has happened into fabricated stories. As a journalist to an extent I am not trying to stir the pot in any of this. I have no agenda to defend Miller, Heard, WB or DC here but I am someone who is on the internet alot & I do think just how Amber Heard & Ezra Miller have become easy targets to scrutinize, they’re associated with a franchise that’s become an easy target to scrutinize which is just ridiculous.
To turn personal lives into a weapon against a film studio because they haven’t had the same success as another rival studio is the ugliest form of fan entitlement. I could sit here & tell you how problematic some Marvel actors are but because of this colloquialism & because of how bigger the fanbase is their is an obligation to defend Marvel Studios because “they can do no wrong.” This is why I’m glad the court of public opinion isn’t the court of law.
Even if WB Discovery & DC don’t take my advice I’m not going to declare the movie will flop. Studios have a better sense of what a movie will do than any of us do. I could ask my brother who is now a Disney business analyst if Disney wants Warner Bros. Discovery to fail & he’ll say no because competition is healthy for the industry. So wanting a studio to do something isn’t up to any of us. We’re outsiders trying to peek through the glass ceiling & we need to stop pretending like we know everything.
Check out the teaser for THE FLASH here
