Andy Muschietti thinks he’s found the reason why the 2023 standalone film The Flash was a flop. And it has to do with women.
During an appearance LA BAULERA DEL COSO, a Spanish-language show on Radio TU, Muschietti said, “The Flash failed […] because it wasn’t a movie that appealed to all four quadrants. It failed at that. When you spend $200 million making a movie, Warner wants to bring even your grandmother to the theaters.”
He went on to say, “And I’ve found in private conversations that a lot of people just don’t care about The Flash as a character. Particularly the two female quadrants. All of that is just the wind going against the film I’ve learned.” And as someone who spent years in the DCTV fandom, it’s ignorance at it’s finest.
The Flash TV series ran for 9 seasons on The CW. And even though it ran alongside other DC series like Arrow, which started the Arrowverse on The CW, it outlasted the story of Green Arrow himself with 184 episodes by the end of the show in comparison to Arrow‘s 170 episodes. And a huge part of that success was because of one Iris West and the romance between her and Barry Allen. But it was also because of Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen.
Gustin’s Barry was sweet, goofy, dedicated, kind, and able to express a range of emotions that Ezra Miller’s Barry could never. And as a woman, I loved watching him and wanted him to succeed. The loss of his mother pulled at my heartstrings and so did his relationship with Joe. His story was about found family, resilience, and love. And sure, at times the show was silly and Barry annoyed me. Nevertheless, I came back and learned more about Barry and his adventures.
Then there was Iris West, played by Candice Patton. I do have gripes about how they treated Iris’ storyline on The Flash. And admittedly when I stopped watching The CW, or TV in general because life gets in the way, I always checked back on Iris. She was always a fighter, someone willing to do what she had to for those she loved. And I admired that. I also admired her relationship with Barry, even though in the beginning I wasn’t 100% sold on it. In short, Westallen always found a way and became a tentpole of the show but of the entire Arrowverse universe.
Keeping all of this in mind, that’s why Muschietti’s comments about The Flash not being popular with the “female quadrant” is infuriating. The female fans are here. They’ve been here. And this is coming from a casual The Flash fan because I was more of an Arrow girlie. But I saw the love, the stanning, the shipping. And it came from women. So when Muschietti says that his movie wasn’t hitting with women, maybe it’s your version of Barry Allen that isn’t hitting. Maybe it’s your directing, your vision, that didn’t hit right.
Because from where I’m sitting, having spent years in the DCTV hellscape on The CW, on the fandom side of things and in writing, the women fans are there. They were there long before Gustin’s take on the character when the cartoons were all we had of Barry. And they’ll continue being there long after your version of The Flash, that will surely be rebooted as a means of creating a Barry that connects with women. Because yours didn’t.
