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We Need To Talk About How Warner Bros Can Save The Flash (2023…?) With Or Without Ezra Miller
You should never put all of your speed force in one basket
Update 8–8–22: In light of the new WB CEO scrapping Batgirl, restructuring all of the DCEU going forward, and Ezra Miller’s latest arrest…
If you haven’t yet read Ezra Miller’s Controversy Has Gone Nuclear by Phaylen Fairchild, it’s a pretty good primer for why The Flash (2023) could prove to be the biggest problem for Warner Bros yet.
And ****ing hell has the DCEU seen some problems.
Obviously no one wants to replace an actor. Especially not so close to a movie’s release date. But if you were going to…here’s how one movie made it look easy.
And listen, I didn’t mean for this to happen but…once upon a time, Jack Sparrow sorta saved the day.
The Imaginarium of Barry Parnassus
Terry Gilliam made a bunch of great movies. Just a few of them include:
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Twelve Monkeys
- Time Bandits
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
And the one that nearly got torpedoed when its star died in the middle of filming: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
(All I want to say while we’re on the topic of making the best of who we’ve got — listen Ezra, you’re a fantastic actor, but things seem at least a little off — Terry signed a petition (offsite) in support of Roman Polanski in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges.
Just…man, come on.)
Heath Ledger, Actor, Is Found Dead at 28
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus got its funding in large part because of Heath Ledger joining as the movie’s star. So when the director got a late-night call informing him that the worst had happened…his heart went to Heath’s family. He assumed the movie was dead.
See the article at the NYT to jump back to January 2008 when we received the devastating news
Would you believe that another defamed celebrity would prove instrumental in bringing that movie back to life?
How to finish an unfinishable movie
Most of the movie was completed, but it had to be finished with a variety of other actors filling in for key scenes.
They could have digitally altered each actor’s face. For a brief time, they considered doing just that (offsite to People), but then they hit on an even better solution. The film’s plot relied on excessive dream sequences.
See Also: The Best Possible Video Game For The Flash Already Hit The Indie Best-Seller List
Who was to say those versions of Heath Ledger’s character had to look like Heath? Couldn’t they merely resemble him? Couldn’t their appearance be just as much informed by the imagery of dreams, magic, and fantasy?
In other words, if the fluidity of identity is part of your story’s premise, how far can we push the limits of our audience’s belief?
If you’re waiting for the opportune moment
Even now, I wish with my whole heart someone would digitally alter Johnny Depp out of the movie. But that’s because regardless of the facts and what I think of the person, his behavior and the impact of that behavior is awful.
And I’m not even talking about his recent abusive rages toward at least one victim of his abuse. I’m just talking about how tough it was to accommodate his shooting schedule.
Johnny Depp’s shooting on the film was the hardest to incorporate into any of the new actors’ schedules due to his contractual obligation on Michael Mann’s Public Enemies at the time; in the end, Gilliam had access to Depp for one day and three hours. All of the shots involving him had to be completed in one take, to fit into Depp’s compressed time schedule. — quote from Wikipedia (sourced 6/16/22)
The thing is that the seeds for Depp serving as the transition the movie needed were planted while Heath Ledger was still alive.
[During the initial shoot] Heath was on stage and the Russians are appearing, and he was behaving in a very funny way, he was moving around, and I said, ‘Heath, I know what you’re doing.’ He said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘You’re doing Johnny Depp, aren’t you?’ And can you believe, that helps this transition [when Ledger enters the mirror and becomes Depp]. This was not intended!” — Resurrecting Heath Ledger’s final film (CBS News)
(You have to see it to believe just how well it worked. That’s why I’ve included a video of the finished effect at the end of the article to make your jaw drop to the floor ❤)
Transitions come in all forms
In the meantime, Terry Gilliam shared the power of the first test screenings proving the concept would work.
I just thought if it works with the transition to Johnny and if the audience goes for it, they’ll follow the next two. And that’s exactly how it works. […] That’s what’s funny, when Johnny appears so many people think it’s Heath! And it’s a trick: Johnny’s not doing anything. He looks like Johnny. […] — Resurrecting Heath Ledger’s final film (CBS News)
Coming together to save the universe
With The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the cast and crew came together to honor Heath Ledger.
I believe we should come together for Ezra Miller, though that’s in a different way than what I mean for this movie, the character, and the franchise.
With The Flash, we can come together to honor the character itself. The one that lives beyond whichever actor dons the role.
Don’t worry, Warner Bros. We’ll show up for a good Flash movie the moment you make one. But you may need to embrace the power of the multiverse like never before.
What worked for the CW will work for Warner Bros
Bring back every actor who has ever played a version of Barry Allen or the Flash. They aren’t necessarily the same. Remember when the best actor on Smallville played the Flash for dozens and dozens of episodes for the animated Justice League?
Shooting schedules won’t matter. With the character bleep blooping through multiverses anyway, one brief scene would show the characters just as confused by Barry’s constantly fluxing face.
Same consciousness…different body.
Same character, different actor.
No continuity required.
But you wouldn’t clap yet
Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part Christopher Nolan calls “The Prestige.”
How to end the movie so we come back for more (with or without Ezra Miller ❤)
The film could end sort of like the end of DC Rebirth and the animated movie Flashpoint, except we’d have all of these different Flashes converge as they rush toward the cut to black that’ll be the credits.
They know they’re converging. They’re unifying into one person.
Who will that person be when the next movie comes out?
Will it be Ezra Miller? Will it be Grant Gustin? Will it be ANY of the actors we just saw?
Or will it be someone unknown? Someone completely new to the audience?
Suddenly the thrill of discovering who is cast/recast as The Flash would no longer sever this franchise’s connection to the DCEU. It’d be like waiting to find out whether that ****ing brat Jason Todd died in the explosion.
He was always going to die. Just like Warner Bros was always going to recast Barry.
But audiences like the dance. The fantasy. The anticipation.
“Now you’re looking for the secret. But you won’t find it because of course, you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.” — John Cutter
Because in the end, Warner Bros knows just how to give audiences a surprising yet inevitable casting. In a franchise that has embraced the multiverse, there are as many versions of The Flash as there are actors who play him.
Audiences will spend all that time wondering who will take on the mantle next. And since we’ve already seen how quickly audiences were hooked by a female speedster…
Isn’t it time the world met Berry Allen?
PS. Here’s a story over on AO3 with a proof of concept for Miss Berry
PS2. Here’s the video I promised of that amazing first scene when Johnny Depp took over for Heath Ledger in a dream sequence
PS3. Here’s a hilarious reference to The Flash in a music video from Soldier Boy in season 3 of The Boys (just listen to the first few lyrics)
