Do Not See The Flash In Theaters, Here’s Why
An argument for boycotting The Flash because of its star, Ezra Miller.
I am not only a lifelong comic book fan, but my writing career depends largely on keeping current with all things nerd. Regardless, I will not be seeing The Flash in the theater, or in any other format that will add even the smallest fraction to the film‘s earnings, and neither should you.
The late, great George Carlin once said, “I leave symbols for the symbol-minded.” As I imagine he would have felt, I do not care about any kind of symbolic protest to DC Studios or Warner Bros. Discovery for choosing to move ahead with the release of The Flash in spite of Ezra Miller’s involvement. I do not care about “cancelling” anyone.
This isn’t Roseanne Barr being accused of making a racist joke on social media. This isn’t Joss Whedon being a jerk to his cast and crew.
This is someone accused of being a sexual predator of children, potentially for the better part of a decade. This is someone who is alleged to have used their money and influence to hurt children, hurt women, start a cult in Iceland, and — cherry on top — amass more guns than a Central City rogue and reportedly store them with all the care of The Stand‘s Trashcan Man.
Ezra Miller is the lead of The Flash and in most likelihood, Miller’s contract will award them a percentage of the blockbuster’s gross, should it do well enough. If all the hype surrounding the film results in the kind of payday it’s hunting for, it most certainly will do well enough.
If The Flash does really well — like, say Spider-Man: No Way Home or Avatar: The Way of Water well — there’s no reason to think DC Studios won’t decide all is even more forgiven, and include Ezra Miller in their future plans after The Flash.
If the allegations against Ezra Miller are true, then the money you spend on The Flash will help them continue to do what they’ve already been accused of doing. It will potentially buy them more plane tickets to different states and countries to groom children all over the globe, it could help pay more lawyer’s fees, more guns and ammo, and allegedly more weed to blow into the faces of infants.
And really, the movie is just Flashpoint. We’ve known that for years. If you’ve read the comics or seen the 2013 animated movie Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, there are no surprises waiting for you in The Flash that will amount to more than an unexpected cameo.
Actually, James Gunn and Peter Safran are faithfully paying tribute to the source material by reproducing DC Comics’ useless and repetitive model of completely rebooting continuity every few years and pretending it matters. The Flash is just Flashpoint with some of its coolest elements excised.
Of course, some may counter what I have to say by regurgitating the PR bullet points of Ezra Miller supposedly receiving treatment and being on the path to redemption, but what you may not realize is that the accusations against Miller go way beyond them supposedly stealing liquor from a neighbor. More importantly, they go back years and there’s no reason to believe they’ll end just because James Gunn gave Miller a therapist’s phone number.
The allegations against Ezra Miller go back as far as 2016, before even the release of their first non-cameo appearance as The Flash in Justice League. According to the parents of Tokota Iron Eyes — who at the time was 12 years old when Miller was 23 — this is when Miller began grooming their daughter. Their allegations include that The Flash star has physically abused their daughter, drugged her, threatened her, and taken control of her social media account.
More recently, in 2022, a Massachusetts woman reported she had filed, and been granted, a temporary restraining order on Ezra Miller after she accused them of harassing her 12-year-old son. She claims Miller has touched her son inappropriately, has brandished firearms around him, and on a number of occasions has shown up to her house without invitation or warning.
The Flash star has allegedly offered to fund a clothing line the 12-year-old would design, to send the boy to a design school, and to buy him horses.
The allegations of grooming children are, of course, not the end of the accusations being leveled against Ezra Miller. Last year was a busy one for Miller and their lawyers, with the star being accused of cutting open a 26-year-old woman’s forehead in Hawaii by hitting her with a chair, and earlier, a couple filed a restraining order against Miller after the lead of The Flash allegedly stole their belongings and threatened to kill them.
Last June, Rolling Stone released an incredible and disturbing story involving a woman and her three children who were reportedly staying on Ezra Miller’s Vermont property. The publication claimed to have seen video that revealed a large and haphazardly stored arsenal of firearms on Miller’s farm, including, in some cases, automatic weapons being kept near piles of toys and stuffed animals. Miller is said at one point to have blown marijuana smoke into a baby’s face.
And then there’s the 2020 video in which Miller appears to choke a woman and throw her to the ground.
That isn’t even the end of it. That’s just the worst of it.
I sincerely hope Ezra Miller finds the redemption DC Studios’ PR team wants us to believe they’re inching toward, but that doesn’t mean The Flash deserves to be a record-breaking blockbuster. If Miller is guilty of the accusations against them, and if they are somehow able to make amends and get on a better path, they can do both of those things without being a Hollywood A-lister.
The majority of us manage to live without obscene wealth and influence, and helping to make sure Miller keeps those things will only enable them to potentially hurt more people.
Stay home. Wait until it’s on HBO Max. Michael Keaton won’t be less Batman if you watch The Flash at home.
