Andy Muschietti says no one can replace Ezra Miller as The Flash

Ezra Miller in a scene from ‘The Flash’

The Flash director Andy Muschietti has made it clear that he will not recast Ezra Miller if Warner Bros. decides to make a sequel to the upcoming superhero feature. Miller, who identifies as non-binary and goes by they/them pronouns, made headlines last year for a string of arrests and erratic behaviour.

The actor reprises the role of Barry Allen aka The Flash in Muschietti’s The Flash, which is set to be released in theatres worldwide in June, after playing the character in 2017’s Justice League.

“If (a sequel) happens, yes. I don’t think there’s anyone that can play that character as well as they did,” the filmmaker said during his appearance on The Discourse podcast. “The other depictions of the character are great, but this particular vision of the character, they just excelled in doing it. And, as you said, the two Barrys — it feels like a character that was made for them,” he added.

The Flash producer Barbara Muschietti said the actor was “brilliant and the most committed and the most professional” during the filming of the movie. “Ezra gave everything for this role — physically, creatively, emotionally. They were absolutely supreme,” she added.

In 2020, the actor made headlines after a recording surfaced in which they appeared to be choking a woman outside of a bar in Iceland. Miller was arrested twice last year in Hawaii, for disorderly conduct and harassment at a karaoke bar and then for second-degree assault. In a statement last August, the actor had said that they had been seeking treatment for “complex mental health issues”.