Every Single Thing That Has Gone Wrong With The Flash Movie (2004 – 2022)

Few movies have been both as eagerly anticipated and as deeply troubled as "The Flash." Despite being one of DC's most popular superheroes, bringing the Scarlet Speedster to the big screen for a solo adventure has proven to be a major challenge — and that's saying the very least of it. The attempts date way back to the '80s, when superstar comic book writer Jeph Loeb was developing a script for a film that would have focused on the character. Yet, at every turn, something has gone wrong and prevented an adaptation from seeing the light of day.

As it stands, Warner Bros. has a completed movie that stars Ezra Miller in the lead role as Barry Allen, with Andy Muschietti ("It") in the director's chair. To seal the deal, Michael Keaton is reprising his role as Batman. But Miller has had a string of concerning and highly public troubles that have made the $200 million blockbuster a headache for the studio. There's always a possibility that "The Flash," despite being pretty much done in its current form, may never see the light of day. And even if it does, it will be tainted in some way due to Miller's off-screen troubles, even with an apology.

Why does this movie seem to be cursed? How far back does this curse extend? We're going to go over a timeline of every single thing that has gone wrong, from the earliest attempts at getting "The Flash" made right up through Miller's current troubles that have thrown the film into turmoil. 

After sitting on Goyer's shoulders for a few years, Warner Bros. then turned to Shawn Levy ("Night at the Museum") to take over the director's chair for the project. Unfortunately, his already successful franchise for Fox would end up taking him away, as Levy would depart the DC adaptation to helm "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" instead. Alas, another short-lived iteration never came to be.

Things got a bit more serious when Charles Roven joined the project as a producer. Unfortunately, the Writer's Guild of America went on strike in 2008 and that messed up things in Hollywood pretty badly at the time. "You know, we're stuck right now with the writer's strike. We've got a writer, we've got a director, we just gotta wait until the strike's over," Roven said at the time. If the writer's strike hadn't happened, would "The Flash" have moved forward in another iteration? It's hard to say, but this definitely hurt matters at the time.

In 2010, before "Green Lantern" turned out to be a disaster for everyone involved, the film's writers — Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, and Marc Guggenheim — were hired to write "The Flash." Their script was said to be based on Geoff Johns' run in the pages of DC Comics, but after what happened with "Green Lantern," this version was never going to move forward. Berlanti did go on to make "The Flash" for The CW though, and was the chief architect behind the Arrowverse.

After successfully launching "Arrow," The CW doubled down on bringing DC heroes to the small screen with "The Flash," which debuted its very first episode on October 7, 2014. Greg Berlanti developed the show alongside Geoff Johns, with Grant Gustin starring as Barry Allen. Berlanti never got to make his movie, but he brought a version of the character to the screen that endured for nearly a decade, beating the movie to the punch by years. Nearly 200 episodes of the show will have aired by the time Miller's movie arrives in theaters.

Around the same time that initial DCEU slate was announced, Warner Bros. revealed that then-rising star Ezra Miller would star as Barry Allen. They would debut in "Justice League" (after a brief cameo in "Batman v Superman") before taking center stage in a solo film. Despite a great deal of trouble since then (which we'll get into), Miller still remains our Flash as of this writing.

In October of 2015, nearly a year after the DCEU slate announcement, it was revealed that Seth Grahame-Smith ("Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter") would make his feature directorial debut with "The Flash." Or, at least that was the plan. The filmmaker was going to be working from Lord and Miller's treatment, but he would also depart the project in early 2016 over what was only referred to as creative differences.

Even though the cast was starting to come together and a director was working on the film, Warner Bros. decided to give the March 2018 release date set aside for "The Flash" to the "Tomb Raider" reboot headlined by Alicia Vikander. That left the film without a release date.

With a cast that now included Billy Crudup as Barry Allen's father (Crudup and Clemons even filmed cameos for "Justice League"), things were looking up. Pre-production was happening in early October of that year, but Famuyiwa soon departed as director. At the time, the filmmaker released a statement that read as follows:

"I was also excited to work with Ezra Miller, who is a phenomenal young actor. I pitched a version of the film in line with my voice, humor and heart. While it's disappointing that we couldn't come together creatively on the project, I remain grateful for the opportunity. I will continue to look for opportunities to tell stories that speak to a fresh generational, topical and multicultural point of view."

And so the film was put on hold again.

Harold made quick work of getting a draft of "The Flash" script turned in and Warner Bros. set about getting a director to take the reins. The studio was aiming high, but Robert Zemeckis ("Back to the Future"), Matthew Vaughn ("X-Men: First Class"), Sam Raimi ("Spider-Man"), Marc Webb ("The Amazing Spider-Man"), Ben Affleck ("The Town"), and even Jordan Peele ("Get Out") all turned it down.

In January of 2018, John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein ("Game Night") were the latest filmmakers hired to take on the film, which was still titled "Flashpoint." Later that year, the title was changed back to "The Flash."

After years of chaos, Ezra Miller stepped up to the plate to personally write the script. In March 2019, Miller recruited famed comic book writer Grant Morrison to help pen a screenplay for "The Flash." However, had very little time to do it and Warner Bros. preferred Daley and Goldstein's take. Ultimately, the studio rejected the script that Miller and Morrison put together. Miller's deal for the role was set to expire in May of that year, but Warner Bros. convinced them to stay on board even after this script didn't pan out.

In December 2019, mere months before a global pandemic was set to bring Hollywood to a grinding halt for more than a year, Warner Bros. set "The Flash" to be released on July 1, 2022. However, shortly thereafter, the release date would move forward to June 3, 2022. The world had other plans though.

Perhaps the biggest shocker yet came in June 2022 when it was revealed that Michael Keaton, who had previously starred in "Batman" and "Batman Returns," was set to reprise his role as Bruce Wayne in "The Flash." This was going to open up the DC multiverse in a huge way and gave the film an even bigger hook than it had previously.

Despite all of the mess and suffering too many delays to count, filming actually began on "The Flash" in April of 2021. This would, in theory, allow the film to stay on target for a summer 2022 release. That too would not come to pass. However, Andy Muschietti did manage to get the film in the can, with filming officially wrapping in October of that year.

Ezra Miller's troubles really began back in 2020 when a video of the star surfaced online that seemed to show them choking a fan outside of a bar. But it was largely dismissed shortly after it debuted. Unfortunately, this was just the very tip of the iceberg. Things started getting odd again in January 2022 when Miller released a video on social media (that was promptly deleted) in which they threatened the KKK. In both March and April of 2022, Miller got into legal trouble in Hawaii and was arrested twice: once for disorderly conduct and harassment, and another for second-degree assault.

Things only get worse from there. In June of 2022, Miller was accused of grooming Tokata Iron Eyes, who met the actor when she was just 12. To top it all off, Miller was charged with felony burglary in August of 2022. This is the briefest of brief recounts of Miller's transgression and there is certainly more to it. But it all paints a picture and has left Warner Bros. in a precarious situation. Unless Miller can get their act together, this movie may never actually hit theaters.

"The Flash" will hit theaters on June 23, 2023. Maybe.