The Flash: Billy Crudup in Talks to Reprise Justice League Role

October 5, 2020

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Emmy-winning actor Billy Crudup is currently back in early negotiations to reprise his DCEU role in Andy Muschietti’s highly-anticipated The Flash film. The 52-year-old actor made his debut in the DCEU as Barry Allen’s father Dr. Henry Allen in 2017’s Justice League.

This casting news comes four years after he was first cast for the Ezra Miller-led project, which was previously set to be directed by Rick Famuyiwa. However, due to the film’ s slow development as well as script and director changes, Crudup ultimately decided to leave the long-delayed film.

Warner Bros. first revealed that their Flash film would be inspired by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert’s Flashpoint comic as early as 2017. The studio even went so far as to change the movie’s title to Flashpoint. But following last month’s announcement of the film’s 2022 release date, it doesn’t sound like this is still the case.

It’s probably for the best that the filmmakers are going to make changes to Johns and Kubert’s original Flashpoint arc. After all, the story has already been brought to life in animated form and in the Arrowverse. In 2013, Warner Home Video released Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. A few years later, The CW’s The Flash aired its own version of the story during the show’s third season. With this, it makes sense that Warner Bros.’ film division would want to make something that stands out from prior adaptations. Plus, the timeline tampering could also be used a means of fixing continuity issues within the DCEU.

Set to be directed by IT‘s Andy Muschietti, the latest screenplay is being written by Christina Hodson which will still cover the famous Flashpoint storyline. It has been confirmed that Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck will be reprising their respective versions of Bruce Wayne/Batman for the film.

The Ezra Miller-led Flash movie is now scheduled to be released on July 1, 2022. Miller first portrayed the scarlet speedster in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League.