Posted in: CW, Movies, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: arrowverse, grant gustin, opinion, The Flash

The Flash: Someone Please Introduce Andy Muschietti to The Arrowverse?

Grant Gustin, Candice Patton & Danielle Panabaker-starring The Flash ran for nine seasons. Can someone please remind Andy Muschietti of that?

At this point, can someone please introduce film director Andrés "Andy" Muschietti to Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, and Danielle Panabaker-starring The Flash? Either he's not aware that nine seasons and 184 episodes of the "Arrowverse" foundational series exist, or he's blatantly disrespecting the series (and thus, the shared series universe) because he thinks it couldn't compare to what "THE CINEMA!" could do (but still hasn't up until this point, Christopher Nolan aside).

During The Discourse podcast in 2023, Muschietti had some very polarizing comments to share about Ezra Miller's take on Barry Allen in what would turn out to be a $200M disappointment. "If [a sequel] happens, yes," Muschietti responded when asked if Miller would be asked to return for a sequel in light of their legal issues. "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." As you can imagine, that didn't exactly sit well with fans of the long-running series – and things didn't exactly get better…

In terms of the film itself, fans assumed that Gustin would appear in some manner when word got out that The Flash would be checking out glimpses of the multiverse at some point during the film. Considering Gustin and Miller had crossed paths previously in the Arrow chapter, "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Four," the assumption was reasonable – and the opportunity to make it happen seemed pretty obvious. Unfortunately, Gustin would go on to confirm he wouldn't appear in April 2023 (with Gustin adding that it was the first time anyone had asked him the question on the record). That same month, Muschietti argued that the list of possible cameos "was huge" and that they had "played with the idea of including DC characters from TV," but apparently, there wasn't enough space for them to make the cut. Considering who did make the cut, that response also wasn't taken lightly by "Arrowverse" fans.

That brings us to the here-and-now, with Muschietti sharing his thoughts on why the pre-DC Studios film didn't light up the box office as many were predicting during an interview with Radio Tu's La Baulera del Coso (see above). "'The Flash' failed, among all the other reasons, because it wasn't a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that. When you spend $200 million making a movie, [Warner Bros.] wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters," Muschietti explained. In terms of "four quadrants," Muschietti is referencing four major moviegoer demos that studios are looking to hit for their film to succeed (men over 25, men under 25, women over 25, women under 25). Okay. Fair enough. But if the translation is true, Muschietti shifted his focus to the character himself, claiming that viewers don't care as much about The Flash as they do other DC characters – especially women. "I've found in private conversations that a lot of people just don't care about The Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants [women over 25, women under 25]. All of that is just the wind going against the film I've learned," Muschietti added.

Sure. No one cared about Barry Allen and Iris West-Allen for nine seasons – where their relationship served as the foundation for the show's success – for nine seasons. Makes sense… if this is a multiverse version of Muschietti that got trapped here from an alternate universe where The Flash and the "Arrowverse" never existed.

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