Phil Lord Says 'The Flash' And Animated 'Spider-Man' Are "Off A Little Bit To The Side" From Larger Franchises

Phil Lord, along with creative partner Chris Miller, has turned into one of the most reliable writer/directors in Hollywood, and that means he's got a hand in quite a few different projects. One is The Flash, the big-screen version of DC's speedster hero, which Lord reveals will likely be a Barry Allen Flash movie. That's the same version of the character seen on TV. Grant Gustin plays the TV Flash, while Ezra Miller will be the big-screen star.

Another is the animated Spider-Man movie in development at Sony. Perhaps the most interesting thing Lord is willing to reveal is that both films will be sort of like standalone movies, rather than things connected to bigger franchises.

That's no surprise for Spider-Man, which as an animated film already feels like a different thing from whatever live-action project will be assembled by Sony and Marvel. But it is a bit of a surprise for The Flash, which was assumed to be tightly linked to the rest of the DC movie universe.

Phil Lord appeared on Florida-based podcast Hippojuice, and while on that show he was asked about a few different topics you'll find interesting. First up was a request for a Flash update — that being the DC and Warner Bros. movie, not the TV show.

We're trying to break a story. It's interesting, because there's a really popular TV show out there, and we're trying to carve out space for the movie that's apart from that. I think we're doing alright. ... I believe [our Flash] is going to be Barry Allen. ... It's going to be it's own [thing, apart from the TV show] — we're more trying to stick with the cinematic universe... it really is its own thing, and kind of a stand-alone movie. We're just trying to think of the best story. I think you guys will like it, it's kind of a different take on superhero stuff.

That "kind of a stand-alone movie" comment is the most interesting thing there. We don't know if Lord and Miller will direct this movie, but if they do, it could be to the DC lineup what we thought Ant-Man might be for Marvel, when Edgar Wright was set to direct. We'll have to wait to see precisely how stand-alone this movie ends up being, and obviously WB could rope it in to larger franchise plans.

And then there's the animated Spider-Man movie that Lord and Miller have in the works at Sony.

We're sort of juggling superheroes with the color red in them, that's all we do. [laughter] We're trying not to confuse their powers or anything, but it does get tricky. But it's the same thing, is there a way to do one of these movies in a new way? That's the exciting thing about it being animated, is it opens up a lot of different possibilities.

Chris and I like to carve out spaces where people will let us do what we want. So much of our careers are like "oh, no one will bother us while we try to make a 21 Jump Street movie, because it's such a crazy idea, no one's going to know what to do with it." So we're doing these things kind of like that. They're part of these huge franchises, but kind of are off a little bit to the side, and that gives us a lot of creative freedom, and that's the thing we love. Hopefully we won't waste that!

So, again, both movies are "off a little bit to the side."

Lord has a few things to say about other projects. His comments about The Lego Movie, starting at about 11:30, are great, as he says the film really truly came together during the sound mix, very late in the process.

There's a lot more in the podcast, but we'll let you discover the rest. You can listen to the full podcast here: