After an incredibly quick run, even for a speedster, The Flash movie is finally out on home video. This means that viewers are able to see its visual-effects-heavy third act in glorious Ultra HD. While the multiverse sequence gives people a lot to talk about, The Flash using a CGI double for George Reeves reignites controversy over the late actor's feelings about Superman.
One of the reasons SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA on strike has to do with the use of digital effects, artificial intelligence and how it erases human beings from the profession. One proposal reportedly allowed studios to scan background actors for $100. Then the studios would own that scan, and the actor's likeness, for eternity. They could appear in any movie doing anything without needing the actor's consent. While The Flash is a little different, the use of digital recreations of actors who've passed away is ethnically dubious. There's no question that images of Adam West as Batman or Christopher Reeve as Superman were meant to honor those actors. However, especially given the state of the industry, it didn't come across that way. However, the most egregious use of digital resurrection came from the first multiversal "Chrono Bowl" The Flash shows audiences. A "black and white" world featured the likeness of the late actor George Reeves, known for playing Superman. However, here's the thing: George Reeves apparently blamed that role for ruining his career.
George Reeves Resented Being Typecast as Superman
In the same sequence featuring the Reeves digital ghost, there is a Golden Age Flash seen who, by all accounts, appeared to be Teddy Sears, known for playing a phony Jay Garrick on The Flash series. Rather, it was a fully CGI character wearing the face of one of the film's editors, Jason Ballantine. It was a strange choice, considering John Wesley Shipp played Jay Garrick in The Flash series. Still, it's not the imaginary person that caused the controversy -- it's the use of Reeves himself. From 1951 through 1958, Reeves was the most famous actor to a generation of children in Adventures of Superman. He even appeared as the character in an episode of I Love Lucy.
However, after taking off the tights for good, Reeves found his superstar role wasn't so "super" for his career. "The only rub in playing Superman is that I have a tough time finding other roles," Reeves said, "Movie producers feel I'm too closely identified with Superman, so won't use me [in other roles]." So, while generations of children, both during the 1950s and in the decades after on reruns, loved his Clark Kent performance, Reeves grew to resent it. Even if Warner Bros. received permission from his family to use his likeness, it's not difficult to imagine that, had the actor lived to 2023, he wouldn't have appreciated the gesture.
The 2006 film Hollywoodland dramatizes his life and the aftermath of his death, around which there are questions. Still, even if his association with Superman didn't contribute to his untimely passing, he was clear that he wanted to be remembered for more than that role. So, The Flash introducing a CGI version of the actor in costume raises serious questions about whether digitally resurrecting actors without their express permission is a tribute or macabre. He took the Superman role out of desperation, but he wanted his legacy to be that of a journeyman actor. Instead, his legacy was cheeky headlines in the mid-20th Century press about the passing of "Superman."
The Flash Faces Criticism for Resurrecting More Than One Superman
While Reeves and Christopher Reeve were both recreated with digital effects for The Flash movie, they weren't the only actors. Helen Slater and Nicolas Cage also appear in the film, made digitally younger for their appearances. Presumably, Slater and Cage were able to give their permission to director Andy Muschietti and Warner Bros. It's a different discussion when actors, or even their surviving families, give filmmakers these kinds of permissions. Still, if a late actor spoke out often about how an iconic role haunted them, perhaps the better way to honor them is to let them rest in peace.
While modern digital VFX artists make miracles happen regularly, striking writers and actors know this technology could be used for ill intent. With AI technology, Warner Bros. could, in theory, use that CGI model of Reeves's Superman and the decade of voice recordings to create all-new "performances" featuring these actors. The strike also makes clear, at least in the case of background actors, the studio doesn't want to pay these actors for the use of their likenesses. Again, this sequence was surely meant to be a celebration of DC's long past in live-action. It's something it still has over Marvel Studios, after all. Yet, instead of celebrating these actors, many fans believe The Flash did the opposite.
The Flash movie is available to own on digital.