THE FLASH Movie Casts Billy Crudup as Henry Allen

The Flash's dad is about to feel fear...for the last time.

Variety revealed yesterday that Billy Crudup is in talks to play Henry Allen, father of Barry Allen, for Rick Famuyiwa's upcoming film adaptation of DC Comics' The Flash.  Crudup would join Ezra Miller as The Flash/Barry Allen and Kiersey Clemons as Iris West. Production is expected to start this year in London, England.

Crudup, 48, is best known as Dr. Manhattan in Zack Snyder's Watchmen and as Musgrave in Mission: Impossible III.  In addition, he'll be featured in the upcoming movie Alien: Covenant and has appeared in the films Spotlight, Eat Pray Love, Public Enemies, The Good Shepherd, Big Fish, Almost Famous, Waking the Dead, and Inventing the Abbotts.

Created in 1962 by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, Henry Allen first appeared in The Flash (vol.1) #126 as Barry Allen's father and husband of Nora Allen, who was a doctor in Fallville, Iowa for thirty years.  After years of his son acting as the superhero known as The Flash, Henry's heart stopped when he and Nora were involved in a serious car accident.  Although the motorist who was at fault, Jack Morgan, was able to revive him, Henry's astral form had left his physical body, and it was possessed by the Top.  The villain posed as Henry for several weeks, with the ultimate goal of transferring his spirit to the body of Henry's superhero son.  However, Barry feigned death, causing the Top to leave his father's body with no new host to go to, so that Henry's spirit could return to its rightful body.

In 2009, Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver revamped the character in The Flash: Rebirth (vol.1) #1.  When Barry Allen was a child, Nora was murdered and Henry was convicted of the crime.  This incident drove his son to become a policeman, in hope of finding the real killer.  Henry died in prison a year or two before his son became the Flash.

The current New 52 incarnation of the character debuted in 2012's The Flash (vol.4) Annual #1.  This time, when Barry was a child, Nora was brutally murdered, and Henry was wrongfully accused of the act.  Being sentenced to jail time in Iron Heights, Barry grew up without his father to raise him and pursued the truth to his innocence.  After Barry became the Flash, it was discovered that Nora Allen's true murderer was Eobard Thawne, the supervillain known as Professor Zoom.  Thawne was arrested for the murder and Henry Allen was released from Iron Heights.

Crudup, if he accepts the role, will be the third actor to portray Henry Allen in live-action, after M. Emmet Walsh in the original 1990-91 The Flash television series, and John Wesley Shipp in the current The Flash TV series that debuted in 2014.

The Flash is currently scheduled to be released in theaters on March 16, 2018.