Zack Snyder Reveals the Film That Convinced Him to Cast Ezra Miller as the Flash

Ezra Miller is Barry Allen, the Flash of the DC Extended Universe. He first appeared briefly in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before joining the team in Justice League. Now director Zack Snyder has revealed the moment that he realized Miller was his Flash.

A fan on social media network Vero asked Snyder if he was “sold on Ezra from the get-go as the Flash?”

Snyder responded that it was even before Miller had been cast, but from the “day I saw him in Perks of Being a Wallflower.”

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was released in 2012 and is an adaptation of Stephen Chbosky’s 1999 epistolary novel of the same name. Chbosky himself wrote and directed the film, which is a coming-of-age drama about a teenager named Charlie (Logan Lerman) experiencing his first year of high school. Miller plays Patrick, an older student at the same school. Patrick and his sister Sam (Emma Watson) befriend Charlie and Patrick’s struggles as a gay teen in high school become a subplot running alongside Charlie’s attempts to deal with buried trauma, social awkwardness, and his feelings for Sam.

As Barry Allen, Miller plays a version of The Flash that is younger than the one from the comics. Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) recruits Barry into the Justice League and takes the young hero under his wing, sharing his own experience and knowledge as a superhero gained from years of being Batman.

Miller’s future as the Flash is currently in a holding pattern. Warner Bros. has been planning a Flash movie but has had trouble keeping a director attached to the project. The film had reportedly been retitled Flashpoint after a storyline that could potentially reshape the entire DC Extended Universe and was also said to feature Affleck’s Batman.

Newer reports suggest that the Flashpoint plans have been scrapped and Batman’s role removed from the film. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein are currently attached to direct the film.

Other upcoming DC Extended Universe films include Aquaman on December 21st, Wonder Woman 2 on November 1, 2019, Shazam on April 5, 2019, Cyborg in 2020, and Green Lantern Corps in 2020.