Actor Ezra Miller arrives at the premiere of Warner Bros.’ ‘Justice League’. Pictures at the Dolby Theater on November 13, 2017 in Hollywood, California.
Axel | Bauer Griffin | Filmmagic | Getty Images
As David Zaslav seeks to revamp Warner Bros.’ Discovery In the DC Cinematic Universe, one of the studio’s biggest stars continues to make headlines for alleged criminal behavior.
Ezra Miller, who portrays Barry Allen, aka The Flash, as part of the DC Extended Universe, was charged with burglary in Stamford, VT, according to a Vermont State Police report.
The alleged incident happened on May 1 and involved bottles of liquor missing from a local residence. According to the report, surveillance video indicated Miller’s involvement and they received a citation on Sunday to appear in Vermont Superior Court on Sept. 26 for arraignment.
This latest incident follows a disturbing pattern of behavior and allegations of misconduct that date back to at least 2020. Miller was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and harassment in early 2022 and, hours before their court appearance in April on those charges, was rearrested after an altercation in which they were charged with throwing a chair and hurting a woman.
Additionally, two protective orders have been granted in recent months, one for a 12-year-old child in Massachusetts and the other for Gibson Iron Eyes, an 18-year-old Standing Rock activist, who was allegedly treated by Miller, according to the parents. Chase Iron Eyes and Sara Jumping Eagle.
Other allegations suggest that Miller housed a 25-year-old mother and her three children, all under the age of five, at his ranch in Stamford. The property allegedly doubles as an unlicensed cannabis farm and has several firearms on the premises, according to a Rolling Stone report.
The burglary charge against Miller comes nearly a year before Warner Bros. is releasing “The Flash,” a $100 million movie that’s part of the studio’s DC franchise.
The news also comes just days after the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery praised the film in an earnings call.
“We have some great DC movies coming up: ‘Black Adam’, ‘Shazam!’ and ‘Flash,'” Zaslav said on the call. “And we’re working on all of that. We’re very excited about them. We’ve seen them. We think they’re great…”
The company has remained silent on Miller’s previous assault arrests earlier this year, but sources within the company have said emergency meetings were held in April to discuss their recent controversies and how the studio would proceed going forward. At that time, it was determined that the film would remain on the slate, but Warner Bros. would put future projects involving the actor on hold.
The studio even teased “The Flash” during its presentation at CinemaCon in late April, suggesting that it still plans to release the film next year.
Representatives for the company did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Miller’s latest run-in with the law has only stoked fans’ anger at the studio, which controversially suspended the direct-to-stream DC film “Batgirl” last week.
Many felt the decision to scrap the film, which stars an Afro-Latina star as Leslie Grace, was a bad move. Although Warner Bros. Discovery argued that the decision was made as part of a cost-cutting measure following the merger of Discovery and Warner Bros.
Zaslav took the helm of the new Warner Bros. merger. Discovery in April and sought to refocus the company’s content strategy, taking a very different direction from former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who prioritized streaming and digital media.
The new CEO doesn’t want the company to spend large sums of money on big-budget movie projects just to get them started on streaming.