Arrowverse fans were stunned by the announcement that actor Hartley Sawyer, who plays the part of Elongated Man, was being fired from The Flash because of a series of offensive comments he had made on his personal Twitter . The remarks, however, were even more shocking than Sawyer's sudden sacking.
Hartley Sawyer ed the cast of The Flash at the start of season 4, playing the part of private investigator Ralph Dibny. A sleazy sort with a history of corruption during his brief time as a patrolman with the Central City Police Department, Ralph butted heads with the straight-and-narrow Barry Allen, as they two were forced to work together to face a criminal mastermind known as The Thinker. In time, Ralph found redemption for the man he had been and became one of The Flash's most stalwart allies.
Sadly, it has been revealed that playing a lecherous detective was not much of a test of Sawyer's acting talents. Most of the distasteful comments discovered by fans on Sawyer's Twitter that led to his dismissal were of a sexual or misogynistic nature. In one tweet, Sawyer said that a great ice breaker at parties was to say that "All women should be in sex farms." Sawyer also made a number of jokes about wife-beating, staring at women's breasts and, in one particularly vile tweet, said, "I like women who are good in the sack! The burlap sack where I put my victims." Several of Sawyer's other tweets made reference to him being a secret serial killer who loved torturing women.
Beyond making light of sexual assault, domestic abuse, and serial killers, Sawyer also made a number of remarks that were racist and dismissive of race issues in America. Regarding the water crisis in Flint, MI, Sawyer complained that he had access to clean water but couldn't watch Godzilla at home until he got the surround sound system on his home stereo fixed. Other tweets were tired old gags punched up with shock or gross-out humor, such as Sawyer's twist on the tired old mother-in-law joke, where he quipped that "bestiality jokes aren't funny. Unless the beast mentioned is my future mother in law."
It remains to be seen if the producers of The Flash will recast the role of Ralph Dibny or find some way of writing him out of the show in the wake of Sawyer's dismissal. The latter option seems more likely, given that the producers of Batwoman, facing similar issues in the wake of lead actress Ruby Rose quitting, have opted to replace Kate Kane with a new Batwoman rather than recast the role. In either case, it will be interesting to see how this alters the story of The Flash season 7 and if it will have any effect on Natalie Dreyfus' role as Ralph Dibny's love interest Sue Dearbon.