Grant Gustin’s Flash Movie Snub Is An Insult After 10 Years Of Playing Barry Allen

Grant Gustin has been snubbed from 2023’s The Flash, despite building a brilliant legacy over his ten years portraying Barry Allen, a.k.a. the Flash, on The CW. The Flash debuted in 2014 after Gustin first appeared in 2013 as Barry Allen in a backdoor pilot on The CW’s premiere DC series, Arrow. He’s since made several guest appearances on The CW’s other DC series, including Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman. The Flash season 9 was announced to be the final season of the successful series, kicking off in February 2023, with the finale airing in summer 2023, marking ten years since Gustin first sported his superhero suit as the speeding protector of Central City.

While Gustin dominated The CW’s DC series’ as the Flash, Ezra Miller was cast in the role for the DCEU, making cameo appearances in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad before making their starring debut in 2017’s Justice League. 2023’s The Flash will mark Miller’s first solo film as Barry Allen and will reset the DC Universe, allowing James Gunn and Peter Safran to revitalize the franchise starting with 2025’s Superman: Legacy. Initially, it was thought that Grant Gustin could cameo in The Flash, especially due to the timeline-jumping storyline for the upcoming film, but these hopes might have been dashed by the man himself.

Related: The Flash: Trailer, Cast, Story, & Everything We Know

Grant Gustin Deserves To Be In The Flash Movie In Some Way

During a recent interview with TVLine, Grant Gustin revealed that not only would he not be appearing in The Flash, but that he was never even approached with the opportunity of making an appearance. Gustin has portrayed Barry Allen for ten years now, far longer than Ezra Miller, and arguably gave a more popular performance as the metahuman speedster. The Flash would have been the perfect vessel to celebrate Gustin’s lengthy career as Barry Allen, especially since Gustin and Miller’s versions of the Flash already share a connection after appearing together in The CW’s DC crossover event, “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”

Airing in 2019 and 2020, “Crisis on Infinite Earths” marked the sixth crossover event in The CW’s “Arrowverse,” combining characters from every corner of their franchise to save the multiverse. During this event, Gustin’s Barry Allen meets Miller’s iteration in the Speed Force, which only helped to raise hopes that the favor would be returned by allowing Gustin to appear in The Flash on the big screen. Miller’s version of the character even gained the Flash moniker from Gustin’s Barry Allen at this moment, so it would have been great to see 2023’s The Flash pay tribute to Gustin’s brilliant portrayal of the character in some way.

How Grant Gustin Can Still Appear In The Flash Movie

Superhero movies are notoriously wrapped in secrecy during their productions, so it’s possible that Gustin does, in fact, have a role in The Flash but simply isn’t allowed to say so. Should he be included in the upcoming film, even just as a cameo, DC Studios would surely want to keep the secret for as long as possible, creating the greatest impact when he shows up in theaters. Even archive footage could be used to implant Gustin’s Barry Allen into The Flash, and since the upcoming film will be exploring the multiverse, there might be no better opportunity to pay homage to the last ten years of Gustin’s superhero career.