After the failure of The Flash, DC has wasted no time in replacing Ezra Miller as the titular speedster for a new story that improves upon the films’.
Following the box office failure of The Flash, DC has already replaced Ezra Miller as the titular hero in a new, intriguing story. DC Studios announced a companion piece to The Flash movie on July 6, 2023. The project is a podcast that will tell a story entirely through voice-acting performances that takes place canonically a few years after the end of The Flash movie.
This development is certainly interesting, as it marks a departure from Ezra Miller’s version of The Flash with an entirely new actor in the role. While this may not have any impact on whether Miller will reprise their role as the Flash in James Gunn’s DCU, the podcast-centric take is still an intriguing direction to go in. This mainly stems from the recasting of Ezra Miller and the story at the center of the podcast that seems more interesting than the one told in The Flash‘s multiverse tale.
The Flash: Escape The Midnight Circus Replaces Ezra Miller For A New Story
The podcast is titled The Flash: Escape The Midnight Circus and features Max Greenfield of New Girl fame in the role. As per the official release on the Apple Podcast website, the premise is that Barry Allen has spent a few years as Central City’s primary superhero and is enjoying his relationship with Iris West. However, after his duties as the Flash come between him and Iris, Barry once again travels back in time in order to fix his relationship. Just as in The Flash though, Barry finds he has changed the timeline, and is now part of a televised gladiatorial tournament for superhumans known as The Midnight Circus.
While this concept has some flaws, one being that Barry relies on time travel to fix issues on a whim after learning of the consequences in The Flash, it is still an intriguing concept. Admittedly, it is The Flash: Escape The Midnight Circus’ canon status to The Flash that makes the story’s flaws stand out, but it remains the case that the idea would likely have been better suited for The Flash itself. The story contains similar elements to the Flashpoint comic storyline but separates itself enough to tell a unique story filled with the Flash’s actual rogues gallery like Captain Cold.
One of the issues with The Flash was its half-hearted dedication to the Flashpoint storyline. Telling the story of Barry going back in time to save his mother from dying without adequately fleshing out the alternate universe he creates or exploring who 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed Nora Allen meant that The Flash‘s story felt underbaked. With Escape The Midnight Circus, the similar catalyst of Barry going back in time to fix an aspect of his personal life but this time having a unique, fleshed-out world that links specifically to the Flash as a character sounds like a better story than the one the movie presented.
Why The Flash: Escape The Midnight Circus’ Casting Likely Isn’t Permanent
Despite the excitement surrounding the podcast’s story, it is unlikely the casting of Max Greenfield will replace Ezra Miller indefinitely. Due to the nature of only being a voice performance, the creators likely saw it as an easy task with replacing Miller as listeners will not be physically seeing a different actor as the same version of the character from The Flash. Similarly, The Flash‘s box office failure means fewer people will be confused about the new story as the film was not viewed as extensively as Warner Bros. wished.
Go behind the scenes of THE FLASH: ESCAPE THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS, dropping Monday on @applepodcasts and Pre-Order The Flash movie on @appleTV pic.twitter.com/odOJVsxR28
— The Flash (@theFlash) July 6, 2023
This social media post promoting the podcast also makes it clear that Greenfield sounds a lot like Ezra Miller, meaning the suspension of disbelief will be much easier. However, with the status of the Flash as a character unclear going into James Gunn’s rebooted DCU, Greenfield will likely only perform as the character in this podcast story. As such, it remains to be seen whether Gunn recasts Ezra Miller from The Flash, or whether an entirely new actor will be hired to separate Gunn’s DCU from the continuity of the film and Escape The Midnight Circus.
