The Flash movie has been dealing with directorial troubles through most of 2016. First Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter's Seth Grahame-Smith departed as director due to creative differences with Warner Bros, and then last month, the next guy tapped for the job, Dope's Rick Famuyiwa, left for the same reason. Now the Scarlet Speedster's solo movie is once again without a director, leaving plenty of names to be suggested as a tertiary replacement. One of the names that some fans have mentioned is Kevin Smith, but if Warner Bros approached him about The Flash, the man who helmed Clerks would have a few suggestions for other people suited for the job.
To plug the new episode of The Flash TV series that he directed, "Killer Frost," Smith conducted a Facebook Q&A earlier today, during which he talked about how he would react if he was approached to direct The Flash movie. In his words:
If somebody was like 'Do you want to do The Flash movie?' then this would honestly be my first response. I'd say absolutely, but you should try Tim Miller first. Or I'd say the Wachowskis. I'd list a bunch of other people who I would think would make a brilliant Flash movie.
Smith's comments echo what he recently said on his Fatman on Batman podcast, indicating that while the idea of directing The Flash movie may sound intriguing to him, there are many other directors he knows would be suited to tackle the DC movie. That includes Tim Miller, who helmed the first Deadpool movie, and the Wachowskis, whose credits include The Matrix trilogy, Jupiter Ascending and the Netflix series Sense8. Despite having plenty of experience in the world of superheroes, Smith is confident that should a hypothetical meeting with Warner Bros happen, he, as a comic book fan, would first suggest certain other talented individuals lead the charge on The Flash rather than take the reins himself.
Kevin Smith has taken numerous opportunities to show off his love for the superhero genre, whether it's dropping references in his original movies like Mallrats and Chasing Amy, writing runs of comic book series like Green Arrow and Daredevil (fun fact: he cameoed in the latter hero's 2003 movie as a forensic assistant) or creating the AMC series Comic Book Men. Within the past year, though, he's been putting his directing skills to work on DC Comics television shows. His first episode of The Flash, "The Runaway Dinosaur," aired on May 10, and he was brought back to helm "Killer Frost," which airs tonight. Smith also directed an upcoming episode of Supergirl, titled "Supergirl Lives" (a nod to the Superman Lives script he wrote in the late 1990s), and it doesn't sound like his contributions to DC TV will be ending anytime soon.
While The Flash was originally set to come out on March 23, 2018, the absence of a director could mean that production will be delayed, thus pushing the release date back. Right now, the movie's cast includes Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West and Billy Crudup as Henry Allen.
