‘The Flash’ May Finally Start Production This Autumn
For being the fastest man alive, the Flash sure has a lot of problems with taking his sweet time on his standalone movie, as that project has gone nowhere after several false starts and shifts in creative directions. But the good news is that Ezra Miller might finally get to star in The Flash relatively soon, given that the project that begins filming this Autumn, according to the latest report.
GeeksWorldWide managed to score another interesting scoop with news that The Flash is finally picking up the pace with its development. Should all go as planned, the movie will start filming in November of this year. This would translate to either a late 2020 release window, or a release in the first half of 2021. Miller is still set to star in the project, which is to be directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (who both directed Game Night and were on the writing team for Spider-Man: Homecoming).
One of the big reasons that The Flash has had slow going as a project has everything to do with Miller’s existing commitment to the Harry Potter prequel series Fantastic Beasts, where he plays a crucial character. The third installment to the franchise has been delayed from late 2020 to late 2021 to address complaints with the second film and ostensibly provide more resources toward making it a bigger movie, actions that were likely taken following highly mixed reception and somewhat-disappointing financial returns to The Crimes of Grindelwald left the future of a previously-bulletproof series in question. Conversely, the overwhelming success of Aquaman has led figures within DC Films toward getting principal photography completed while Miller currently has an availability to work at the Warner Bros. lot, since they can at least get started on The Flash before anything on the third Fantastic Beasts movie is filmed.
The other big reason that The Flash has had issues has had to do with the approach to the story. Originally, it was set to be a standalone fairly tied to the aftermath of Justice League in the same way that Aquaman was, albeit with greater ties to the story going forward. Then, it was decided to rework the project as a grand-scale adaptation of Flashpoint, which would effectively make the movie a quasi-sequel to Justice League with most of that film’s cast returning. After Justice League ended up being a costly financial disappointment, the new creative team hired for the project decided that the best course of action would be to go back to the original plan, but place a lot more emphasis on building up Barry Allen and his cast of characters in his corner of the DC Universe than it would be to set up another big crossover film.
Either way, moving forward on this project would make it one less uncertainty on the DC Films slate, which is full of projects that have some development going for them but don’t go anywhere. The more characters are explored in the setting, the better the pay-off is going to be when there’s an eventual big crossover event bringing these characters back together.
The Flash is in development at DC Films.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
