Flash Fans Are Outraged, Want Ezra Miller Gone Immediately
An incident involving actor Ezra Miller has sent fans of the DCEU into a frenzy.
On April 6, a video started circulating in the media that appears to show Miller choking a female fan before dragging her to the ground. While many initially thought it might be a joke, the clip has since been confirmed as being genuine, according to Variety. The altercation took place in a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland, which Miller (who uses they/them pronouns) frequents when they visit the Icelandic capital. The establishment's owner added that the actor had to be escorted out of the bar afterwards (via Variety). The incident took place on April 1.
The short clip of the incident was filmed by a bystander in the bar, and shows a young woman approaching Miller while waving her arms around as though she's dancing towards the actor. Miller can be heard saying "Oh, you wanna fight? That's what you wanna do?" to the young woman before grabbing her by the throat. The video is only seven seconds long, and cuts out as the woman is thrown to the ground; bystanders can be heard trying to defuse the situation.
Miller, who has a featured role as Credence Barebone in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, has played the Flash in the DCEU films. They were first cast in the role as the Scarlet Speedster for a cameo appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before appearing in Justice League; Miller made another cameo as the DCEU version of Barry Allen in the CW's Arrowverse crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths. They were also announced as reprising the role in a Flash solo feature, which is due in 2022.
Some fans call for Grant Gustin to replace Ezra Miller in the DCEU
Fans of the DCEU are concerned over the incident involving Miller, and have sounded a very vocal call for the actor's immediate removal from the upcoming solo film, which is to be directed by It helmer Andy Muschietti. Most feel that Grant Gustin, who has played Barry for six years on the Arrowverse series The Flash, is a better representative for the iconic character, and fans have taken to Twitter in droves to call for Miller's removal. One user suggested that fans should set up a petition to get rid of Miller from the DCEU, saying fans should "breathe to sign" it.
Others opted to put a positive spin on the situation by looking at the actor playing the Flash on television rather than having a go at Miller. "After hearing all this Ezra Miller business, it got me thinking: It would be so dope if Grant Gustin played Flash in the DCEU. Just give him a movie-budget costume and a complete rewrite of his character, he's perfect," one fan tweeted.
Another added a similar suggestion: "Grant Gustin is talented, a dork, has the biggest heart, is the best Barry Allen and most importantly never attacked anyone, what are you all waiting to stan?" they tweeted.
Twitter account DR Movie News took that logic one step further, tweeting, "If there's one positive to come out of that insane Ezra Miller video, it's that Warner Brothers may finally have the chance to re-cast [them] & find someone GOOD to play Barry Allen/Flash for Muschietti's solo-movie & have it be separate from the DCEU like The Batman."
Not everyone agrees that Ezra Miller should be fired right away
There are some who aren't yet convinced of what they're actually seeing in the video. Because of when the person behind the camera starts filming, no one seems to know what caused Miller's apparently extreme reaction, and because of when the video cuts, it's unclear what happened afterwards. Eyewitnesses told Variety that the group of fans who approached Miller in the bar were "quite pushy," and that things escalated from there.
Some fans believe that the call for Miller's dismissal from their upcoming projects is too rash a response to a seven-second clip with not a lot of context surrounding it. "People are too quick to jump and cancel #EzraMiller over a video about which no one has any context yet," one individual tweeted. "Wait and see what really happened. But I'm also NOT defending [them]."
According to ScreenRant, the person who posted the video was a friend of the woman in the clip, and she claimed that her friend was "jokingly" challenging Miller to a fight, which Miller then took too seriously. The friend has since deleted not only her post but also her entire Twitter profile, but not before people were able to get screenshots of her explanation of the incident.
Neither Miller nor their representatives have released a statement about the incident at this point, and Warner Bros. has yet to comment at the time of writing.
Did Flash creative have problems with Ezra Miller in the past?
Amid the incident involving Ezra Miller quickly gaining more and more attention, one of the former co-directors of the solo Flash film took to Twitter to share a cryptic message. John Francis Daley — the Freaks and Geeks star who has gone on to write and/or direct films like Horrible Bosses, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, Vacation, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Game Night — shared to his Twitter account on April 6 a two-word tweet: "creative differences."
Daley and his longtime filmmaking collaborator Jonathan Goldstein were originally attached to co-direct the Flash movie, at the time being referred to with the title Flashpoint, intended to adapt the DC Comics crossover story arc of the same name. Their involvement with the project came to light in January 2018, but in July 2019, it was reported that It director Andy Muschietti was taking over Flashpoint, and that Daley and Goldstein had "moved on."
According to sources with knowledge of the project, Daley and Goldstein left voluntarily after enduring "months of tensions over creative differences" that cast a heavy shadow over Flashpoint. Evidently, the main issue that Daley and Goldstein faced was agreeing on what a Flash standalone film should look at feel like. They knew what they wanted and were on the same page; it was Miller who allegedly caused trouble. While the writing-directing duo reportedly wanted to keep things light (presumably in the vein of Spider-Man: Homecoming, which they wrote together), Miller is said to have wanted to take a "darker approach." The trio were apparently trying to work things out and come to an agreement, but Miller went rogue by writing his own script — even seeking out comics writer Grant Morrison to help.
Many are taking Daley's recent "creative differences" tweet, which he posted the same day the Miller video went viral, as confirmation that the behind-the-scenes troubles he and Goldstein faced while working on Flashpoint were primarily due to Miller's behavior — or as a hint that Miller caused Daley and Goldstein more grief than anyone in the general public knows. This is pure speculation, of course, and we can't know the truth of the situation until someone involved releases a statement.