The Flash Producer Reveals How the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed the Movie: “We Had to Start Again”

This past weekend, DC fans finally got their first look at The Flash, the highly anticipated solo film that will see Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen taking a dangerous journey through the beloved Flashpoint storyline. While the footage from the movie looked wonderful, and the excitement from fans is at all-time high, The Flash has had a difficult journey to the screen. After Miller first joined the franchise as a cameo in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Flash has seen a number of different directors join and eventually exit the project. IT‘s Andy Muschietti finally took over and things looked to be on the up-and-up, just in time for a global pandemic to put the entire industry on hold.

The Flash is currently speeding towards its 2022 release date, but the production team had their hands full when COVID-19 caused everything to shut down. During DC FanDome China, The Flash producer Barbara Muschiettie said that the production team had to essentially start over once they got the green light to get back to work. 

“We prepared a lot and we were ready to go because we’re really good planners, and then a global pandemic hit, and then all the plans went to the toilet and we had to start again,” Muschietti explained. “The first part of the process was truly seeing how we were gonna keep everything together and had no parameters because no one knew what was going to happen. But we were all absolutely excited to make this movie and we all stuck together, Ezra, Andy, I, our team, it basically meant that we had to wait for about six months. We had more time to prep in a way, got the script to a better place which is always fantastic, and then we started shooting in April. It’s been a non-stop, crazy adventure because Covid doesn’t make things easy. But we’re all so fortunate to be working and healthy. We haven’t shut down the movie, we’ve been extremely lucky. It’s luck. That’s how we prepared it, with a lot of luck. And also, Ezra and Andy together have more energy than any human pair I’ve ever met (laughs). They’ve kept us all going basically when things were hard because they are hard in the world we’re living. They just inspired us and kept us going, and we’re almost there at the finish line.”

Changing plans is never easy, especially when the circumstances causing those changes come from a global pandemic. But it sounds like the delay turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise for The Flash, as it allowed the entire creative team more time to get everything exactly how they wanted it.

The Flash arrives in theaters on November 4, 2022.