Spoiler Warning for The Flash (2022….ish)
Of the heroes introduced in 2017’s Justice League, Ezra Miller’s Flash has been by far the…second most screwed over (fingers crossed for some sort of life to poor Ray Fisher’s Cyborg). Still, some progress was made on rectifying that with this panel, which delves into details regarding the eventually upcoming Flash movie.
The panel was hosted by Ezra Miller, director Andy Muschietti (director of Mama and both parts of the recent It series), screenwriter Christina Hodson (screenwriter for Bumblebee and Birds of Prey), and producer Barbara Muschietti (Andy Muschietti’s sister, produced his films as well as Netflix’s Locke & Key) and while rather light on details due to being a 10-minute panel about a movie that hasn’t started filming yet, we did get some points of interest worth discussing.
First and foremost, yes, the director is a man whose career thus far has solely been horror movies, and we were told to expect a tone similar to It (they used footage only from the first of the pair, make of that what you will). So while that doesn’t mean this will be a grim and gritty flash movie, I wouldn’t start marking the date solely out of fandom for the Arrowverse series if I were you. Though given that the screenwriter’s previous works were on the joyful and pleasant side of the spectrum, it’s hard to say for certain exactly what tone we’ll be getting.
Secondly, the Flash is getting a new costume (the concept art for which you can see in the image at the top) which is going to be more streamlined, streaked with lights, and designed for him by his friend Bruce Wayne. Speaking of whom…we’re going to be having two Bruce Waynes in this film
No, that is not fan art. One of said Bruce Waynes is in fact going to be a returning Michael Keaton, reprising his role from the Tim Burton movies. The other will be Ben Affleck, likewise returning to the role. This is an…interesting take, and while I could probably make a good complaint about the over-saturation of Batman and DC putting him in the movie twice instead of focusing on Flash’s own supporting cast…screw it, Michael Keaton’s coming back as Batman y’all!
Full disclosure, the specific casting was not revealed in this panel, but previous to it. However, given that the concept art and the origin of the new costume were discussed in the panel I felt it worth discussing.
And the final point of note was that the plot will indeed involve time travel. Specifically, Barry traveling into the past to save his mother from being murdered…yep, we’re doing Flashpoint again. Though to be fair to the movie, it’s not going to be a direct adaptation of that particular storyline, simply inspired by it. Because regardless of the universe, ‘Dammit Barry’ will always be something we can apply to Barry Allen.
It was also stated that they will be using this movie and the nature of Barry’s powers and abilities to tie the various pieces of DC’s cinematic universe together and explain how that all works. Not a bad idea, and if nothing else it can help explain any recasting they might need to do in the near future, and appease fanboys that technically the Snyder Cut is also canon.
Overall, a fun little panel laying out what this upcoming film will eventually be. Honestly, it had more information about the film itself than the one for Wonder Woman 1984 did. Will the movie be any good? Hard to say really, but it’s got a talented lead and an extremely talented director/writer pair, so my fingers are definitely crossed!
Images courtesy of Warner Bros.
