The success of John Cena’s Peacemaker and David Corenswet’s Superman hints that DC is doing well under the tutelage of James Gunn. Watching the reception these projects have received, it is hard to imagine that just a few years ago the studio was churning out movies like The Flash, which bombed at the box office. Even though fans and critics had multiple problems with the film, director Andy Muschietti believes that his movie wasn’t given its due credit.
While appearing on the Bingeworthy podcast to talk about IT’s prequel series Welcome To Derry, Andy recalled the kind of reception his superhero movie got, and it is safe to say that he doesn’t agree with the critics. Responding to the poor reaction, Andy said, “We just moved on and understood that sometimes there’s a headwind and a project that you dedicated a lot of work to, and we’re very proud of it. I think it’s a good movie.”
He continued, “A lot of people did not see it. But you know how things are these days—people don’t see things, but they like to talk s*** about them, and they like to jump on bandwagons. They don’t really know. People are angry for reasons that are unrelated to these things.” The “reasons” that have been mentioned are presumably the bad press around lead star Ezra Miller. The actor has had more than his share of controversies, and that was one of the reasons why fans were confused why he was still a part of the DC universe.
Andy Muschietti admitted that Ezra Miller’s off-screen problems spilt over to The Flash and said, “Of course, we had a publicity crisis with Ezra that is undeniable. And I’m not questioning that. But yeah, we love the movie. And actually, we really recommend it.” However, Andy maintained that even though Ezra’s image was in the gutter, the studio pulled out all the stops when it came to backing the film. “This may seem immaterial now, but we also had so much support from the studio, really, at a point where they could have been, you know, backing out because of all the issues we were having with publicity. And they went all in, and we all went all in,” said Andy.
Starring Ezra as the speedster, the cast of The Flash also included Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Jeremy Irons and Kiersey Clemons.
