The Flash has confronted scrutiny for over a 12 months on account of quite a lot 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 looking for remedy for “advanced psychological well being points.” Later, in January, The Flash studio Warner Bros. introduced that they had been standing behind the actor. You possibly can 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 really was on them–and The Flash has lengthy been speculated as a strategy to soft-reboot the general franchise utilizing time journey. And even after seeing the film you may be tempted to assume 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 might 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 previously, across the time of the occasions of Man of Metal. Basic Zod reveals up on the lookout for a lacking Kryptonian–Kara, aka Supergirl, on this universe–and in any other case there are not any superheroes who may have any likelihood of standing as much as Zod and his minions. No Surprise Lady, no Aquaman, no Cyborg. And no Flash, since this youthful Barry was going to go on a date with Iris West as an alternative of being within the place the place he will get his powers. However Outdated Barry fixes that.
So within the battle in opposition to Zod and the opposite Kryptonians, we have now two Flashes (considered 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 great 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 every one of actuality in each universe is beginning to break down, as we see demonstrated by goofy CGI orbs, stuffed 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 pay attention. Ultimately, nonetheless, one other model of that Alt-Barry, from earlier in his limitless 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 the complete 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 as if possibly he succeeded, however the cracks present fairly rapidly: His dad, in jail for allegedly killing Barry’s mother, wins his enchantment primarily based on proof that did not exist within the previous timeline. After which when Barry tries to have a chat along with his previous pal Bruce Wayne, he discovers he undoubtedly nonetheless is not dwelling. As a result of on this universe, George Clooney is Batman.
The post-credits scene offers us one extra main nugget of knowledge: Aquaman exists right here, and he is precisely the identical because the Aquaman we already knew.
This can be a actually open-ended story, and so it is not potential to say with any certainty what all this implies proper now. Nevertheless it appears fairly clear what it doesn’t suggest: that we have landed within the everlasting new dwelling 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 scale of those Keaton and Affleck had in The Flash, there’s nearly no likelihood he is truly this franchise’s Batman of the long run. Whereas plans can change, DC co-boss James Gunn mentioned a pair months again that they need someone for his or her subsequent Batman who hasn’t performed the half earlier than, and Clooney is certainly not that.
However, Clooney can be a reasonably good title to rebuild the franchise round. And whereas he is definitely 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 attempting it once more with a wholly totally different set of creatives.
Realistically, although, if Clooney had been again as the brand new Batman to exchange Ben Affleck within the DC movieverse, we might in all probability learn 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 truly, you already know, 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 out a Flash.
So what we truly find yourself with the Clooney bit, actually, is a sequel tease that provides The Flash the air of a reboot of Sliders, with Barry having to hop from dimension to dimension in hopes that his subsequent bounce takes him again dwelling. It is an excellent thought for a film, frankly, and one that would 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 can enable future films to dramatically change the established order if the studio needs 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, in contrast, is merely setting issues up in order that the new-look DC Studios can begin no matter new large plot it needs in a while. It opens the doorways to many potential new paths, however it’s ready for someone else to determine 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 despite the fact that he is met all these totally different Batmen, each Aquaman is strictly the identical. Simply so you already know that when Aquaman and the Misplaced Kingdom comes out later this 12 months, you need not fear about which universe it is going down in–it’s the identical both approach!
Not sweating all that is in all probability one of the best 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 approach that we are able to see–every DC film popping out this 12 months 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 happening within the DC Universe. Probably till we see the rumored Batman film that can reportedly be underneath the care of The Flash director Andy Muschietti.
The comedian e book story on which that movie shall 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, it is a believable one-movie story for him that would depart us with Damian Wayne as DC’s foremost franchise Batman. And in that sense, this Batman movie may 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.
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