"It’s Sort Of A Tragic Relay Race": Ezra Miller & Kiersey Clemons Talk Rick Famuyiwa Leaving 'The Flash'

Last week, Warner Bros.The Flash” came to a skidding halt when “Dope” director Rick Famuyiwa exited the project. His departure marked yet another filmmaker bailing on the movie, which has so far seen Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and Seth Grahame-Smith sign up, only to later depart (though Lord and Miller still wound up contributing a treatment of the script). It’s certainly not a good look for the upcoming movie, but according to the film’s star Ezra Miller, this is all a regular part of the development process.

“These processes are complicated, and I think it can — from afar — appear to be, as you say, something interpersonal or dramatic,” he told Collider. “That is rarely the case. These are groups of people taking the development of projects extremely seriously, and the teams are changing all the time. There’s often a lot of flux in who the team of the production of a film is before that production starts, and in this case, you hear about it, because it’s a critical figure — the directors that have been coming on and leaving. For me, it’s sort of a tragic relay race, and we’ve had a couple really incredible people carry this baton, and their marks are left on that baton, and the work that they’ve given to the project will certainly be represented in whatever the final product comes to be.”

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Miller isn’t wrong that a major movie can go through many hands as it makes its way to the big screen. But it’s less common for a movie that already has a release date, and is supposed to start filming next spring. As for Kiersey Clemons, who is signed up to play Iris West, she’s disappointed she’s not going to be reuniting with the director of “Dope.”

“Rick was one of the main reasons I wanted to do the movie. So him not being a part of it is obviously very upsetting to me,” she told THR. “All I can do is give it up to the gods. Let’s see what happens. Let’s see who’s going to jump in. Ezra and I are going to do what we promised to do from the beginning. No matter who the director is, I am going to do what I think Iris should be.”

Both actors are being stoic during this turmoil, and let’s hope the next director that signs up gets them as excited as they were when Famuyiwa was on aboard. “The Flash” is scheduled to open on March 16, 2018 though that date is now somewhat up in the air.