The mystery behind a quick cameo by Jay Garrick in The Flash movie has finally been solved. The Flash movie was full of cameos by various heroes from around the DC Universe, but it was unclear who played the Crimson Comet.
Who Played Jay Garrick in The Flash Movie?
The answer came in an interview with film editors Jason Ballantine and Paul Machliss in frame.io insider, who had both worked on The Flash. While discussing the film’s many Easter eggs and the tradition of editors getting cameos in the films they work on, Ballantine revealed that he served as The Flash movie’s Jay Garrick.
According to Ballantine, director Andy Muschietti wanted to highlight one of the digitally created characters in the sequence where the various multiple realities were colliding. The Production VFX Supervisor, John “DJ” DesJardin, reportedly replied that “it would be better to have a real face just to help with the look of the shot.” This led to Ballantine volunteering to have his face put on the digital figure, creating a unique look for Jay Garrick.
The question of what actor had played Jay Garrick in The Flash movie had been a subject of some debate following the film’s release. Actor Teddy Sears, who posed as Jay Garrick while playing the villain Zoom in season 2 of the Arrowverse Flash television series, had been erroneously credited as providing the image used to create the CGI speedster. Sears denied any involvement with the film but did agree the composite character “looks like my likeness.”
While this news explains the mystery Jay Garrick, it seems bound to throw further fuel on the fire of the ongoing debate regarding the use of CGI in movies and actors rights. The use of CGI to create background characters is one of the major points of contention in the current SAG-AFTRA strike. It is also likely to anger fans of John Wesley Shipp, who wondered why he was not given a cameo as the first actor to play The Flash in live action, yet Christopher Reeve and Adam West were.
