The Flash director Andy Muschietti is all in on a potential sequel with controversial actor Ezra Miller.
“If [a sequel] happens, yes,” Muschietti said in The Playlist preview on Tuesday of The Discourse podcast. “I don’t think there’s anyone that can play that character as well as they did. The other depictions of the character are great, but this particular vision of the character, they just excelled in doing it.”
Miller’s troubling behaviour has clouded the prospects of The Flash before it opens June 16 with Miller playing the DC Comics superhero.
In January, Miller received probation in a plea deal for a home break-in and theft. They were also arrested twice last year in Hawaii on charges that included disorderly conduct and harassment at a karaoke bar.
The Justice League star, who is nonbinary and uses they and them pronouns, announced in August they were getting help for “complex mental health issues” following the arrests. They also faced claims of abuse and grooming.
Barbara Muschietti, the director’s sister and producing partner, lauded Miller’s behaviour in principal photography, per The Playlist.
“Ezra was brilliant and the most committed and the most professional [actor]. Ezra gave everything for this role — physically, creatively, emotionally,” she reportedly said on the podcast. “They were absolutely supreme.”
But Miller’s return to the franchise is by no means a cinch.
DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn was noncommittal about Miller’s future in April. “We’re just gonna have to wait and see,” he said. (Possible translation: Let’s see how the film does and how moviegoers’ perception of Miller stands.)
In October, actor Issa Rae called out Warner Bros, which is distributing the film, for protecting Miller as the movie remained in production. “There’s this person who’s a repeat offender, who’s been behaving atrociously, and as opposed to shutting them down and shutting the production down, there’s an effort to save the movie and them,” she said. “That is a clear example of the lengths that Hollywood will go to to save itself and to protect offenders.”