The Flash Movie: Grant Morrison Says His Script Was More Like Back to the Future Than a Superhero Movie

It’s taken over half a decade to make a The Flash movie a reality, with the big-screen story of the Scarlet Speedster undergoing multiple different iterations, before finally appearing to get off the ground with director Andy Muschietti and writer Christina Hodson on board. Prior to that take on the film, reports had indicated that franchise star Ezra Miller was co-writing his own version of the script with prolific comic writer Grant Morrison, after a creative clash with then-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. While Morrison and Miller’s version of the film isn’t going to be the one we ultimately see on the screen, Morrison recently shed some light on what it would have entailed. As he told Collider, the script would have been more in line with science-fiction films like Back to the Future than a traditional superhero movie.

“Yeah, it was pretty good. I mean, I don’t know what they’re doing with it,” Morrison explained. “But it was pretty good. And it was a very different kind of superhero thing. It was more like Back to the Future, I would say, than a superhero movie.”

Previous reports had indicated that Miller wanted a “darker” take on the script for The Flash, something that seemed to be on-brand with Morrison’s trippy writing on The Flash comics. But according to Morrison, their version of the script actually would not have gone as dark as it could have been.

“No, it wasn’t [darker] really. I mean, elements of darkness were there, and the material that they wanted us to use [was] the Flashpoint stuff. So, Ezra and I were actually trying to do something that was a bit more —like I say, it’s kind of like just a great science-fiction story,” Morrison revealed. “And if you don’t know [the comics], it would have made sense. But I have to say, I mean, I don’t want to talk about that, because somebody else has done their own work on it and I’m sure it will be great. And maybe, as I say this will leak out one day and people can judge.”

While the current iteration of The Flash has a lot for fans to be excited about – namely the return of both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck as their respective iterations of Bruce Wayne/Batman – the idea of Morrison and Miller crafting their own ambitious, science-fiction take on the iconic comic story Flashpoint is certainly intriguing in its own right.

What do you think of Morrison’s comments surrounding his and Ezra Miller’s The Flash script? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!