Many were somewhat befuddled by DC’s decision to not have Flash Actor Grant Gustin at least even read for the role of their Cinematic Universe version of the speedster.
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Include The Flash’s Tom Cavanagh (Harrison Wells) in that group as well, as he made his viewpoint quite clear in an interview with Nerdist on their Puck Soup podcast. As he sees it, DC brass, and specifically Director Zack Snyder, shouldn’t discount Gustin simply because he plays a particular version of the character on the show.
“It was either Variety or Vanity Fair that wrote an article that said [DC] needs to watch what they’re doing on TV, because the TV’s working and some of the other darker stuff isn’t working.”
He continued: “Here’s what I’ll say about him not being The Flash. The first thing is that for Zack Snyder to say ‘that’s not really the universe that we’re building,’ it’s excruciating for an actor. Because you’re like, ‘Uh, what about acting?’ He’s a clean-cut guy and winning, yes, because he’s acting that. He’s not Barry Allen. He’s Grant Gustin. He created that thing. If you want [your Flash] to have long hair and be a slacker, believe me, Grant can play that. He makes it look easy and makes everyone think that’s what he is because he’s an incredibly skilled talent. That’s why he has that job. That’s why people like the show.”
He makes an excellent point, but he wasn’t finished, adding: “If Zack Snyder were to read him for [The Flash], he would be shocked. It’s crazy for a big-time Hollywood director to say ‘that’s not the universe.’ It’s a huge misstep on his part. If you’re a director, and you’re worth your oats, then you should be able to, given an actor with talent, mold him into what you want, and Grant could do that.”
There are plenty who believe that Snyder’s DC universe could use a lot more joy overall, but that is beside the point. Cavanagh also shared with the hosts what happened after the Ezra Miller casting was announced.
“The second thing is that the movies are tremendous. They’re building all of us up. The difficult thing for the movies is that we’ve had two years in the case of The Flash to win you over and tell a story. They have two hours. That’s not easy to do. So that’s why you see so many missteps. It’s very hard to get that right. And I said to Grant when this was announced: ‘Look, that’s years from now. Do you just want to just be The Flash? You have the ability to be in a Spielberg war movie next.’ And that will happen for him.”
“For his first big movie role to be The Flash, I don’t know if that’s the best thing for him. because you’re asking him to do the same thing he’s had years to do, to do the exact same thing in two hours, and it’s in different hands creatively. It’s tricky.”
While Gustin won’t be appearing in Justice League Part 1, he did recently share the screen with Supergirl in their Worlds Finest team-up. With her now a part of the same network, it stands to reason we might see a whole new sort of Justice League forming right before our eyes.
