The Flash Director Reveals How Previous Versions Influenced Final Movie

When it comes to development hell, few superhero films have gone through it all more than The Flash. The earliest days of development of a modern film telling of the Scarlet Speedster began as early as 2004. Nearly 20 years later and the film is finally coming to fruition, thanks to director Andy Muschietti and writer Christina Hodson.

Though plenty of scripts had already been written, Muschiettit tells ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis he wanted to from scratch, or as close to nothing as possible when making a movie developed from an existing comic book.

“We almost started from scratch. We did have a base of a story that was inherited from previous iterations. The studio knew they wanted to do some kind of intrepretation of Flashpoint, but I didn’t want this to be a literal translation of the comic book,” Muschietti says. “I respect the fandom a lot, but I think the fandom would also expect new things from a movie. Just a literal interpretation of Flashpoint the comic would fall flat in my opinion, so we populated it with twists and turns to make the story a little more fun.”

Where there be a sequel to The Flash?

Though we’ve yet to see what kind of film The Flash will be at the box office, Muschietti has said he already has an idea of how a sequel will look. In fact the filmmaker has said he fully expects Ezra Miller to return should DC Studios greenlight a follow up, even in light of the actor’s recent legal troubles.

“If [a sequel] happens, yes,” Muschietti revealed. “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. And, as you said, the two Barrys — it feels like a character that was made for them.”

“In principal photography, Ezra was brilliant and the most committed and the most professional [actor]. Ezra gave everything for this role — physically, creatively, emotionally. They were absolutely supreme.” The Flash producer Barbara Muschietti added.

The Flash speeds into theaters on June 16th, promising to reshape the DC Multiverse with the help of familiar faces and brand-new heroes. Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) ventures to the past to change history, resulting in massive repercussions for the future. Forced to team up with another version of Barry, the mysterious Kryptonian known as Supergirl (Sasha Calle), and the iconic Batman (Michael Keaton), the Scarlet Speedster is forced to reckon with his mistakes and save a doomed reality. The Flash is directed by Andy Muschietti, written by Christina Hodson from a story by Joby Harold, and produced by Barbara Muschietti.