Actor Ezra Miller arrives at the premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures’ ‘Justice League’ at Dolby Theatre on November 13, 2017 in Hollywood, California.
Axelle | Bauer-Griffin | Filmmagic | Getty Images
As David Zaslav seeks to revamp Warner Bros.’ Discovery’s 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, has been charged with felony burglary in Stamford, VT, according to a report from the Vermont State Police.
The alleged incident occurred on May 1 and involved missing bottles of alcohol from a local residence. According to the report, surveillance video indicated Miller’s involvement and he was issued a citation on Sunday to appear in Vermont Superior Court on Sept. 26 for arraignment.
This latest incident follows a pattern of disturbing behavior and allegations of misconduct that traces 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 for these charges, was arrested again after an altercation in which they were accused of throwing a chair and injuring a woman.
Additionally, two orders of protection have been granted in recent months, one for a 12-year-old in Massachusetts and one for Gibson Iron Eyes, an 18-year-old Standing Rock activist, who was allegedly groomed by Miller, according to parents Chase Iron Eyes and Sara Jumping Eagle.
Other allegations suggest Miller has been housing a 25-year-old mother and her three children, all under the age of five, in his ranch in Stamford. The property purportedly doubles as an unlicensed cannabis farm and has several firearms on the premises, according to a report from Rolling Stone.
The felony burglary charge against Miller comes almost a year before Warner Bros. is slated to release “The Flash,” a $100 million film that is part of the studio’s DC franchise.
The news also comes just days after Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO praised the film during an earnings call.
“We have some great DC films coming up: ‘Black Adam,’ ‘Shazam!’ and ‘Flash,'” Zaslav said during the call. “And we’re working on all of those. We’re very excited about them. We’ve seen them. We think they’re terrific…”
The company remained quiet during Miller’s previous assault arrests earlier this year, but sources within the company 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 pause future projects involving the actor.
The studio even teased “The Flash” during its presentation at CinemaCon in late April, suggesting that it still planned to proceed with the film’s release 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 fan anger toward the studio, which controversially shelved the straight-to-streaming DC film “Batgirl” last week.
Many felt the decision to ditch the film, which features an an Afro-Latina star in Leslie Grace, was bad optics. Although Warner Bros. Discovery has maintained that the move was done as a cost-cutting measure following the merger of Discovery and Warner Bros.
Zaslav took the helm at the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery in April and has sought to refocus the company’s content strategy, taking a vastly different direction than former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who prioritized streaming and digital media.
The new CEO doesn’t want the company to spend large amounts of money on big budget film projects only to have them debut on streaming.