In just over a year, Warner Bros. will finally release its long-awaited solo movie The Flash, which has been through countless developmental problems for nearly a decade already. Unfortunately, those problems continue to persist today due to the issues surrounding its leading actor, Ezra Miller, who's played the leading role since 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Miller has been the center of some disturbing press for the last couple of years after some unfortunate controversy off-camera, with new accusations having arisen in the past few. Most recently, the actor behind Barry Allen responded to grooming accusations with a barrage of memes and pictures on Instagram, although Miller then deleted the entire Instagram account only one day later.
Although they are leading arguably the DCEU's most anticipated solo movie next year, Miller's actions have become more than worrisome as the Flash actor remains in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Even so, one of their former collaborators shared their own thoughts about the experience working with Miller, along with their hopes for the best to work itself out.
Former Flash Writer on Ezra Miller Accusations
Rolling Stone spoke with Grant Morrison — a former writer on The Flash movie who has also written many DC comic book runs, including The Flash — and discussed accusations and controversy surrounding Ezra Miller ahead of the solo movie's release in June 2023.
Miller is currently in potential legal trouble due to accusations from the family of 18-year-old Tokota Iron Eyes of the actor grooming their child. Prior to this, Miller was arrested on two separate occasions in a month - once on charges of disorderly conduct and harassment at a Hawaiian karaoke bar and another time after allegedly assaulting a couple in a nearby area.
Morrison admitted that while they "haven't spoken to [Miller] for a while," the "stories" that are currently circulating paint Miller as "not the person they were." Morrison went on to support Miller as "a super-intelligent kid with so many talents" during the time they knew him:
"I know they’ve had these problems. I haven’t spoken to him for a while, and the last time I spoke was long, long before this. All I can say is that it’s just not the person I know. I’ve heard stories just like everyone else. I just don’t know. Ezra cut off contact from pretty much everyone for a while. It’s not the person they were. They weren’t aggressive in any way. I just thought Ezra was a super-intelligent kid with so many talents. So all I can say is that I didn’t see that side in any way with them."
Morrison also reflected on the unused screenplay for The Flash that they and Miller wrote together, sharing a story about their efforts to make the story better with only a couple of weeks to complete it. The story the two developed centered much more on the Flash alone rather than expanding into the greater universe and kickstarting other franchises, which Warner Bros. passed on:
"Well, there had been a few versions, and as far as I remember, Ezra just wasn’t quite happy with what he was getting at the time. And he had a lot of ideas; he came to me with a book of ideas. And then we worked together. It really was just the two of us. He came over here to Scotland and hung out, and we wrote this thing. I really liked it. They only gave us two weeks! It was cruelty, you know. It was hardcore. We had to be like the Flash to get this thing done, and they were looking for something quite different. I got paid, and it was good fun. It didn’t do the job they were looking for, which was to franchise things and set things up, and bring other characters in. It was a Flash story, so it wasn’t where they wanted to go with multiverse and stuff. And that was the end of it."
Morrison's Best Wishes for Ezra Miller
Even though it's been some time since Morrison and Miller worked together on the script for The Flash, Morrison made it clear that the support for Miller has never wavered over the years. From these comments, they genuinely saw Miller as an immensely talented creator with a bright future ahead, and that these kinds of issues surrounding them wasn't something on the radar by any stretch.
From what Morrison said, Miller had seemingly isolated themselves for a long time after working on the script for The Flash, leaving the relationship in a state of uncertainty while the DCEU moved forward.
Morrison offering his support to Miller through this time is nothing to sneeze at, but it also puts into perspective just how serious things are for the troubled DCEU star at the moment. The future for Miller and the franchise as a whole remains uncertain, with Miller's controversy being only part of the reason, but the hope is that Miller gets themselves in a good place regardless of what happens on the big screen.
The Flash hits theaters on June 23, 2023.
