‘The Flash’ Suit Leaker Regrets What He Did

They say hindsight is 20/20 and that appears to be the case when it comes to last week’s leaked image of Grant Gustin’s Flash costume for the upcoming fifth season of The Flash TV series. The person who posted the image now says they regret it.

In a post to Instagram Stories (via Reddit), the Real World of Flash account claims that not only do they regret posting the photo, but they also attempt to explain where the photo came from, and that it wasn’t their account that first leaked it. You can check out a screenshot of the post below.

“I was given the picture by an anonymous account that is now deleted,” the post reads. “I didn’t post it. I gave a description of which the leaker gave me. It was then leaked on 4chan and Reddit which then gave me the go to post it since it’s out there. Of course, my dumb— watermarked it which I regret because people are going to think that I leaked it. Hope people understand it wasn’t me that leaked it. It was leaked around 15-20 hours ago on Reddit/4Chan.”

For those not keeping track, last week the Real World of Flash posted a photo on Instagram that showed Gustin’s Flash in a new, more comic book accurate version of the Scarlet Speedster’s suit. However, not everyone was thrilled with the costume, leading some to criticize the suit as unflattering, as well as directly criticizing Gustin himself. Body-shamers made some negative comments about the actor’s appearance, resulting in Gustin taking to social media to address the leak and the body shaming.

“So, here’s the thing about this bulls— photo leak,” Gustin wrote. “It’s a cool suit. That’s a terrible photo that I was unaware was being taken, much less being posted. Some things need work and they will be worked on. We’ll get there.”

The leaked image was quickly taken down, and a few days later, Gustin posted his own, more official look at the suit on his Instagram account.

As for the Real World of The Flash’s message of regret, some fans simply aren’t satisfied with the explanation of the photo’s history. Comments on the Reddit post were critical of the fact that the image had been watermarked if the posting account truly wasn’t responsible for it. Others questioned the validity of the statement that the image had previously been leaked on Reddit.

Issues surrounding the leaked photo aside, the new Flash suit is a pretty big departure from the costumes worn in the series’ previous four seasons. Instead of having a jacket-like design, the new suit looks more like a traditional superhero suit and the new mask doesn’t have the chin strap piece anymore. For his part, Gustin seems to be very happy with the suit’s appearance. The photo he shared of himself wearing it featured the actor flexing.

“I was clearly feeling myself,” Gustin wrote in the caption. “I truly love this suit.”

The fifth season of The Flash will debut on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.