It’s been an incredibly long journey for the Fastest Man Alive on the big screen. But various false starts later, Warner Bros.’ The Flash is finally about to take a bow in theaters. Directed by Andy Muschietti (IT) from a script by Christina Hodson (Birds of Prey), the film in part adapts the classic DC comic Flashpoint, in which Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) goes back in time to save his mother from death and completely changes the present, creating a dystopian alternate DC timeline. While it doesn’t look like the movie will get too bogged down in the many subplots of Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert’s miniseries, The Flash will incorporate quite a bit of DC movie history into its runtime.
Case in point: Michael Keaton returns as the Dark Knight of the Burtonverse for the first time since 1992’s Batman Returns. Bringing a major dose of nostalgia to a movie all about exploring the DC multiverse, we’ll get Keaton’s Batman playing all the hits — such as delivering his iconic “I’m Batman” line — as well as showing off a few new tricks. Most importantly, he’ll act as a new guide for both Barry Allens (don’t ask, best to go with it) running around the movie’s timeline.
But that’s not all. On top of that major blast from the past, the movie also seems to serve as somewhat of a finale for the version of the DC movie universe that first began in 2013’s Man of Steel. The film not only brings back Michael Shannon as the villainous General Zod, once again wreaking havoc on Earth, but also seemingly reimagines the epic struggle of the first DCEU movie by casting Sasha Calle’s Supergirl and not Henry Cavill’s Superman in the role of the planet’s savior. (We assume the Kal-El we know was erased from history by Barry’s timey-wimey shenanigans).
To top it all off, Ben Affleck is also back as the DCEU’s Batman, presumably for the final time but we’ve been wrong before (he’s been rumored to appear in this December’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom). In the trailers released so far, we’ve seen Affleck both as Bruce but also suiting up as the Caped Crusader for a high-speed chase on a new Batbike. At one point in the Super Bowl trailer, he warns Barry not to go back in time to mess with the past as the consequences could be horrifying. Turns out Bruce was right!
