Despite the corporate shakeup at Warner Bros., which led to the cancellation of Batgirl and Wonder Woman 3, one DC movie surprisingly remained unscathed: The Flash, which premiered on June 16. Surprising because the film’s lead star, Ezra Miller, has been involved in a string of controversies in the past few years, including multiple arrests, allegations of harassment and assault, and even accusations of child grooming—all of which culminated in Miller being charged with felony burglary in August 2022.
As more allegations surfaced, fans quickly began calling for the role of the Flash to be recast in the DCU. A common suggestion was that Grant Gustin take over the role from Miller. After all, Gustin has portrayed Barry Allen (a.k.a. The Flash) for almost 10 years now on CW’s The Flash TV series. However, since the Arrowverse and DCU are separate, Miller was chosen to portray The Flash in the DCU. Despite this fact, fans have continued to suggest Gustin for the role.
Unfortunately, it isn’t likely that Gustin will take over the role. With the long-running Flash series finally set to end, Gustin is more than ready to move on. Plus, if DC does decide to recast the role after The Flash, new co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran have plenty of time to find a new actor. However, even if Gustin won’t be the DCU’s primary Flash, does he at least get a DCU cameo in The Flash?
Does Grant Gustin appear in The Flash?
Unfortunately for fans who were holding onto hope of Gustin’s appearance, he does not appear in The Flash. Even though The Flash does include some CGI cameos and name-drops some characters, Gustin does not receive any cameo or mention. It is a little disappointing, but not unexpected, as the film’s director confirmed his absence beforehand. Even so, many hoped that it was just Warner Bros.’ attempt to keep a big cameo secret.
The Flash director addressed Gustin’s cameo
The Flash director Andy Muschietti seemingly confirmed that Gustin would not appear in the film, but that he came very close to having a cameo. Nerdist attended a special screening of an early cut of The Flash, where Muschietti also answered some questions. During the interview, Muschietti confirmed that there were initially supposed to be a lot more cameos in the film, but that not all of them could fit into the final cut. Based on the sample he gave of the cameos that were cut, it seemed the initial plans for The Flash were very ambitious and included many different iterations of DC characters from Warner Bros.’ long TV/film history.
In response to a question posed by the Q&A moderator at the event, Grae Drake, Muschietti revealed that Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman, Marlon Brando’s Jor-El, and Cesar Romero’s Joker all almost made the cut. He then confirmed, in response to a question from Dorian Parks of Geeks of Color, that Gustin was also initially set to appear in the film. However, with time constraints, he fell into the category of cameos that didn’t become a reality. Muschietti stated, “Of course, as I said before the list of cameos … was huge. So obviously we played with the idea of including DC characters from TV, but we just had to pick.”
How Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen could have appeared in The Flash
As Muschietti acknowledged, a cameo from Gustin had always been possible, given that The Flash plays with alternate universes. When the Flash goes back in time to save his mother, he accidentally creates a world in which there are no metahumans and there’s an alternate version of Batman. With the multiverse coming into play, there’s no reason why a Gustin iteration of the Flash couldn’t show up. Prior to Muschietti’s statement, there was no evidence of his appearance—until The Flash merch dropped.
Ahead of the film’s release, The Flash: The Official Visual Companion became available for pre-order. Fans were surprised to find that the book’s cover features a prominent nod to Gustin. The cover sees Miller’s Flash front and center, but with several comic book and animated Flashes in the background. Gustin’s live-action Flash stands out the most among the other animated versions, making his inclusion hard to miss. Some questioned if the material inadvertently confirmed that Gustin would appear in The Flash film.
On the one hand, considering that the Visual Companion is met to be an “encyclopedia” of The Flash film, it did seem to imply Gustin has a role in it. However, the book’s subtitle is The Scarlet Speedster From Page to Screen. This meant the book could’ve just been touching on the history of the Flash and the hero’s journey to The Flash film, which would obviously include Gustin. Even though he ultimately didn’t receive a cameo, his appearance in the Visual Companion was still an indication of his importance in The Flash’s TV/film history.
(featured image: The CW)
