The Flash Actor Fired After Old Offensive Tweets Resurface

If you're a big fan of Hartley Sawyer's portrayal of Ralph Dibny, you're in for some bad news. Hartley Sawyer has been fired from The Flash Season 7 as offensive tweets from 2012 and on have resurfaced, showing an ugly side of the actor. While the actor's Twitter is gone, a number of Twitter users have discovered some of his older tweets that are pretty bad, if we're being honest.

The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Hartley Sawyer was fired for these tweets that surfaced, with a statement from The CW released that speaks out against his actions. It reads as follows: "Hartley Sawyer will not be returning for season seven of The Flash. In regards to Mr. Sawyer's posts on social media, we do not tolerate derogatory remarks that target any race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, or sexual orientation. Such remarks are antithetical to our values and polices, which strive and evolve to promote a safe, inclusive and productive environment for our workforce."

For his part, Sawyer did apologize for the tweets he made back then on his Instagram, claiming that they were poor attempts at humor. Though old, Sawyer does feel shame for making them since they made fun of race ("The only thing keeping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me") and made light of sexual assault ("Date rape myself so I don't have to masturbate").

Honestly, this is a hard situation to judge. While the tweets Sawyer made were really bad, keep in mind that they are pretty old and he could have changed already. It bears some similarities to the time James Gunn was fired from Marvel Studios when he made bad tweets over a decade ago. If Sawyer has shown a change in character since the tweets were made, this was an exaggerated move.

Either way, Sawyer's Ralph Dibny will not be appearing in The Flash Season 7. It's not yet clear if they will recast the character or simply write him off. We'll have to wait and see.

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