The Flash has confronted scrutiny for over a yr as a consequence of a wide range of authorized incidents involving star Ezra Miller. The actor was arrested twice in Hawaii on harassment and assault fees, pled responsible to trespassing after being charged with housebreaking, and has been accused of grooming a minor, amongst different incidents. The minor in query, now an grownup, disputes the grooming allegation. In August 2022, Miller introduced they had been searching for remedy for “complicated psychological well being points.” Later, in January, The Flash studio Warner Bros. introduced that they had been standing behind the actor. You may learn extra concerning the points surrounding Miller right here.
DC’s try to repeat Marvel’s field workplace domination with a shared universe of its personal has been off the rails for for much longer than it was on them–if certainly it ever actually was on them–and The Flash has lengthy been speculated as a approach to soft-reboot the general franchise utilizing time journey. And even after seeing the film you is perhaps tempted to suppose that is what occurred right here.
However you would be incorrect. Most likely.
Warning: This text incorporates all the most important spoilers from The Flash.
The essential rundown of The Flash goes like this: After heroically rescuing a dozen infants that had fallen out of a hospital window, Barry Allen ranges up and may now run so quick that he goes again in time. So he runs again to his personal childhood and prevents his mother from dying, after which tries to return to the current. However he cannot fairly appear to get there–and then a darkish determine knocks him out of the Pace Pressure and again into actuality.
He is prior to now, across the time of the occasions of Man of Metal. Basic Zod reveals up searching for a lacking Kryptonian–Kara, aka Supergirl, on this universe–and in any other case there are not any superheroes who might have any likelihood of standing as much as Zod and his minions. No Surprise Girl, no Aquaman, no Cyborg. And no Flash, since this youthful Barry was going to go on a date with Iris West as a substitute of being within the place the place he will get his powers. However Previous Barry fixes that.
So within the battle in opposition to Zod and the opposite Kryptonians, we have now two Flashes (certainly one of whom is model new), a Supergirl who’s been in Russian jail for a very long time, and a Batman who’s many years older than the one Barry used to know.
The nice guys do not win this one. Zod kills Supergirl, Batman crashes the Batwing and blows up, and Youthful Barry decides to check out time touring. However nothing he does works. Supergirl at all times dies, and Zod at all times kills everybody on Earth. Youthful Barry tries for a really very long time, though–long sufficient that each one of actuality in each universe is beginning to break down, as we see demonstrated by goofy CGI orbs, filled with previous Batmen and Superpeople, crashing into one another within the Pace Pressure.
Our foremost Barry pleads with Different Barry to cease, however he will not hear. Finally, nevertheless, one other model of that Alt-Barry, from earlier in his countless cycle of failing to cease Zod, pops into the Pace Pressure, hears these pleas, and takes out his older self. This kills all variations of Barry from this non-Justice League universe, and permits Zod to extinguish all the human race in that universe. And with nobody left to attempt to save, Barry is free to attempt to return to his previous timeline.
It initially looks like possibly he succeeded, however the cracks present fairly rapidly: His dad, in jail for allegedly killing Barry’s mother, wins his attraction primarily based on proof that did not exist within the previous timeline. After which when Barry tries to have a chat together with his previous pal Bruce Wayne, he discovers he positively nonetheless is not house. As a result of on this universe, George Clooney is Batman.
The post-credits scene provides us one further main nugget of data: Aquaman exists right here, and he is precisely the identical because the Aquaman we already knew.
It is a actually open-ended story, and so it is not potential to say with any certainty what all this implies proper now. But it surely appears fairly clear what it would not imply: that we have landed within the everlasting new house of the DC movieverse. Whereas it is conceivable that Clooney, who performed the half in Batman & Robin, would don the cape once more for a task the dimensions of those Keaton and Affleck had in The Flash, there’s virtually no likelihood he is really this franchise’s Batman of the longer term. Whereas plans can change, DC co-boss James Gunn stated a pair months again that they need someone for his or her subsequent Batman who hasn’t played the part before, and Clooney is unquestionably not that.
However, Clooney can be a fairly good title to rebuild the franchise round. And whereas he is actually mocked Batman & Robin–which is, fingers down, the worst Batman film, loads of instances over the previous three decades–that would not preclude him from making an attempt it once more with a wholly completely different set of creatives.
Realistically, although, if Clooney had been again as the brand new Batman to switch Ben Affleck within the DC movieverse, we might in all probability find out about it from real-world information sources.
So what is the deal right here? For now: nothing in any respect. The Flash doesn’t mirror any sort of change in the established order of the DC franchise past the introduction of the multiverse. That is not a small factor, however it would not really, you understand, change the state of actuality past this movie. Ben Affleck’s Batman wasn’t written out of existence, for example–the universe Barry got here from remains to be there, with no Flash.
So what we really find yourself with the Clooney bit, actually, is a sequel tease that offers The Flash the air of a reboot of Sliders, with Barry having to hop from dimension to dimension in hopes that his subsequent leap takes him again house. It is an amazing thought for a film, frankly, and one that might have large ramifications for the way forward for the DC Prolonged Universe.
That is sort of the punchline with The Flash: It would not by itself change something concerning the better DC franchise past offering a framework that may permit future films to dramatically change the established order if the studio desires them to. It is not like Marvel’s Loki, the place the introduction of the multiverse was itself an inciting incident for the better story of Kang the Conqueror. The Flash, against this, is merely setting issues up in order that the new-look DC Studios can begin no matter new large plot it desires afterward. It opens the doorways to many potential new paths, however it’s ready for someone else to resolve which one we will take.
Within the meantime, they do not need you to sweat all these things an excessive amount of, which is what the Aquaman cameo within the post-credits scene is about. Within the scene, Barry tells Arthur about how though he is met all these completely different Batmen, each Aquaman is precisely the identical. Simply so you understand that when Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom comes out later this yr, you need not fear about which universe it is happening in–it’s the identical both means!
Not sweating all that is in all probability the perfect thought for all of us, because it’s too early for brand spanking new DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran to have gotten their general plans underway in full in a means that we will see–every DC film popping out this yr was in manufacturing earlier than these two took over. So we’ll have some time to attend earlier than we get any thought of what is actually occurring within the DC Universe. Probably till we see the rumored Batman film that may reportedly be underneath the care of The Flash director Andy Muschietti.
The comedian ebook story on which that movie will probably be primarily based, The Courageous and the Daring, introduces Bruce Wayne’s son, Damian, as Robin and inheritor to the function of Batman. If Clooney goes to stay round as Bruce past this cameo, this can be a believable one-movie story for him that might depart us with Damian Wayne as DC’s foremost franchise Batman. And in that sense, this Batman movie might function a direct sequel to The Flash, and it might even be the franchise reset that we thought The Flash was going to be.
However there are too many items in movement, and we do not know sufficient about any of them but.
The merchandise mentioned right here had been independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot could get a share of the income if you happen to purchase something featured on our web site.