Kiersey Clemons Frontrunner to Play Female Lead in DC’s The Flash Movie
DC’s 2018 superhero film The Flash may feature a Dope reunion, as, according to Variety, director Rick Famuyiwa is zeroing in on his “top choice” to play the female lead alongside Ezra Miller’s titular character/Barry Allen, and it’s none other than actress Kiersey Clemons. While the character she would be portraying in the movie hasn’t been officially announced by Warner Bros. yet, the outlet claims that “insiders” have led them to believe her role will likely be that of Iris West, “the tough-as-nails journalist and friend” to Allen.
Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter sent out the following tweet, saying that singer Rita Ora (Fifty Shades of Grey) and Lucy Boynton (Sing Street) are also in the mix for the role, but either of them being cast over Clemons seems unlikely.
Other names in the mix to play Iris West in THE FLASH movie along with Kiersey Clemons are singer Rita Ora and Lucy Boynton.
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) July 8, 2016
For a young, 22-year-old performer, Clemons has already had quite the career. Although she is best known for her performance in Dope as Diggy, her other credits include major roles in CBS’s Extant, this summer’s Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and Amazon’s Transparent.
As proven by the near-casting of Clemons, an African-American woman, DC Films seems to be making a conscious effort to diversify the casts of many of their future projects, something that their rival, Marvel Studio, who is beating them in nearly every other department, has only started to make forward strides in doing after years of paying very little mind to such a thing. Marvel may bring in the box office dollars and positive reviews, but if DC can appeal to audiences of different nationalities and backgrounds better than Marvel has, they may be able to thrive in a post-Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film landscape.
No other actors/actresses have come on board the film yet but expect this summer to be filled with casting announcements, considering how The Flash‘s release date isn’t that far away. The movie will be released a little under two years from now on March 16, 2018.
Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), who recently exited as director, is still listed as the main screenwriter on the project, and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The LEGO Movie) wrote the treatment.
Elsewhere in the DC Extended Universe, production on Wonder Woman has finished and filming on Justice League is underway; both films are set to be released next year.
Source: Variety
