There aren't many actors who are quite as reliable as Billy Crudup. Occasionally, he's outright brilliant, as in Cameron Crowe's lovely Almost Famous, Jesus' Son, Public Enemies, Glass Chin, and last year's undervalued The Stanford Prison Experiment. In other cases, such as in Watchmen, Sleepers, and Mission Impossible 3, he gives thinly written characters tremendous poise and a distinct signature in movement and delivery. Even in total junk, he's almost always excellent, and that's likely why he's in talks for a major role in Rick Famuyiwa's intensely anticipated The Flash.
According to Variety, Crudup will be playing Barry Allen's father, a character that has changed a lot over the years in the source material. In most iterations, it's understood that both Mr. and Mrs. Allen are alive and well in some sense, but some more recent storylines, including the one that drives CW's immensely enjoyable The Flash, Allen's father has been jailed for murdering his wife. In these story lines, most of Barry's drive is devoted to proving his father's innocence in that very crime.
It's unclear right now where this version of The Flash will take the character, but Crudup certainly looks the part, with Ezra Miller playing Allen. It's not hard to imagine them verbally sparring with one another and that being involving enough on its own. That being said, there's a lot of justifiable good will going into this DC property where a lot of other ones are not nearly as promising. Even in the footage we saw out of SDCC, Miller was a clear standout amongst Jason Momoa's Aquaman and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman.
Crudup and Miller will be joined by Kiersey Clemons, who had a breakout performance in Famuyiwa's Dope and will play Iris West, Barry's best friend and not-so-secret crush, for him here. We're waiting to hear on who the villain (or villains) will be, to say nothing of Iris' father, but with a cast this strong already, The Flash has a major edge in the DC movie pool.
