Ever heard a director pin the blame for his movie’s flop squarely on the audience? Welcome to Andy Muschietti’s post-mortem for The Flash. He’s back at it again.
In a candid appearance on the Bingeworthy podcast, he seemed to argue that the film didn’t “bomb” because of creative failures, but because the fans never even let it compete.
“People Don’t See Things — They Just Talk Sh-t”
Muschietti didn’t hold back when talking about The Flash’s failure. The movie made $108 million domestic and $163 million overseas for a worldwide total of $271 million — far below what Warner Bros. needed to break even. Muschietti said the movie was good and that people just didn’t give it a chance:
“A lot of people did not see it. But you know how things are these days — people don’t see things, but they like to talk sh-t about it, and they like to jump on bandwagons. They don’t really know. People are angry for reasons that are unrelated to these things.”
In his view, The Flash didn’t bomb because of the film itself, it bombed because fans never showed up.
Blames the Fans, Not the Film
Muschietti said he thinks people just didn’t give The Flash a fair chance and instead piled on because it became the “cool” thing to hate. His comments echo similar complaints from Hollywood directors who blame online chatter and fan backlash (James Mangold comes to mind) for killing interest before a film even opens.
According to Muschietti, “a lot of people did not see it” but still joined in on the criticism. He suggested much of the anger surrounding the movie had nothing to do with the story or direction, but outside factors.
Acknowledges Ezra Miller’s Controversy
However, Muschietti did admit Ezra Miller’s off-screen problems didn’t help the situation:
“Of course, we had a publicity crisis with Ezra that is undeniable. And I’m not questioning that. But yeah, we love the movie. And actually, we really recommend it.”
Muschietti also said Warner Bros. stood by the project even when it became clear the headlines surrounding Miller could sink the movie:
“We also had so much support from the studio, really, at a point where they could have been backing out because of all the issues we were having with publicity. They went all in, and we all went all in. And again, we love the movie. We gave it our blood, sweat, and tears all the way to the end. And I watched it a week ago and loved it again.”
Special effects went unfinished, ending changed
Muschietti claiming he had the full support of Warner Bros. doesn’t add up.
Not only has it been reported that the ending was changed because of James Gunn and the new DCU, but insiders filled us in on the real ending of The Flash, which would have continued Zack Snyder’s DCEU under Mike De Luca, who we’ve now been told will restart DC once WBD is sold.
That’s not all as our insiders also filled us in that the special effects for The Flash went unfinished, which has since been confirmed.
What’s next for Andy Muschietti?
Muschietti has the IT spinoff series, Welcome to Derry, premiering on October 26.
He’s also supposed to direct the Batman movie, Brave and the Bold, for James Gunn in the DCU. However, we’re betting it will never happen.
