When Warner Bros. confirmed 10 new movies based on DC comic book characters over five years starting in 2016, fanboys/fangirls immediately wondered who would be playing the superheroes. We don’t know all the stars, but one that was immediately announced was Ezra Miller as “The Flash.” Miller, who is known for the film “The Perks Of Being a WallFlower,” will likely appear in earlier DC comic book movies before getting his own standalone “Flash” film in 2018.

Wait a second! Didn’t the brand new “Flash” TV show just debut two weeks ago with Grant Gustin as the star? Why did the folks at Warner Bros. pick one guy to be the Flash on TV and a different one to play him in movies? To make matters even worse, Gustin and Miller have somewhat similar looks (aside from Miller’s long hair). They are both in their early 20s and are tall, thin, not overly muscular young men. So, why two different people to play the same role?

Mat Goldberg of movie news website Collider.com says part of the answer is the complications that would have arisen from trying to fit a movie film schedule around Grant Gustin’s TV schedule. Goldberg also pointed out that “The Flash” TV show is on the relatively small CW network, and is only seen by about 4 million people per week. “You devalue the property a bit if you connect it too much to a CW TV series,” he said.

It is worth noting that it actually makes sense to have multiple actors portraying The Flash. While mainstream audiences are used to the notion of a single person representing a comic book character -- Clark Kent is Superman, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Peter Parker is Spiderman -- in the comic book world, there have been four different people assume the mantle of The Flash: Jay Garrick, Wally West, Bart Allen, and the most famous Flash, Barry Allen. The TV show uses the Barry Allen persona for its Flash. It is not yet known which character will represent the Flash in the movies. Heck, even The Flash’s costume has changed dramatically over the years. We are used to the solid red Flash suit, but he has also worn outfits that featured yellow, blue, and even white color schemes in the comics.

Goldberg noted, “Comic book fans freak out about this stuff, but comic books do multiple versions of superheroes all the time. It’s not as weird and complicated as people think. You just end up managing this character in two separate universes. The real challenge here is trying to lay out what you are going to do with these characters over the course of 9 movies. What really matters is will this be a good Flash movie.”