It’s too late for Warner Bros. to replace Ezra Miller as the Flash

I know the country has been fascinated by the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial this past month, but that’s not the only celebrity scandal going on. Ezra Miller, who plays the Flash in the DC Extended Universe, has been getting into all kinds of trouble. They’ve been arrested twice in Hawaii, once for lunging at a guy playing darts at a bar and again after allegedly throwing a chair and striking a woman at a party. A Hawaii couple took out a restraining order against the actor after Miller broker into their room, threatened them and tried to take some of their belongings.

That restraining order was later rescinded, but still, Warner Bros. is not happy with all this bad press. They reportedly considered hitting “pause” on all of Miller’s projects. That might work for the Fantastic Beasts franchise, where Miller has a supporting role and the latest movie is out anyway, but the solo Flash movie is a trickier beast.

You see, The Flash movie is already shot, and according to Variety has gotten excellent responses at test screenings. According to inside sources, unless something catastrophic happens, The Flash movie will come out in 2023 as scheduled.

Insiders say Warner Bros. is moving ahead with Ezra Miller’s The Flash movie

Any other option would prohibitively expensive for the studio. They’ve already put “hundreds of millions” of dollars into it, and as they see it, the only way to recoup those costs is to release the movie in theaters, which nixes the option to either release it straight to HBO Max or just to scrap it entirely. And remember: this movie is supposed to be a tentpole for the DC Extended Universe going forward. It has a story that revolves around the multiverse (which is all the rage these days), features appearances from both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton and Batman, and sets up future storylines. Warner Bros. can’t afford to sweep this one under the rug, no matter how much ruckus their star is causing.

Another option would be to replace Miller in the lead role, but since they’re in just about every scene, that would take too much additional money and time, and this after the movie has already been delayed on a number of occasions. The Flash is happening.

That said, there’s no guarantee they couldn’t recast the role for future movies. Miller isn’t irreplaceable. As box office analyst Jeff Bock told Variety, “Ezra is not Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.”

Of course, maybe Miller’s performance in The Flash is so good that they’ll become Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, and then Warner Bros. will have a whole new problem on its hands. That’s assuming that Miller hasn’t stopped misbehaving by the time the movie comes out, and/or that people haven’t forgotten about the original scandal. That’s a risk the studio will just have to take.

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