Entertainment

What is going on with The Flash?

DC is known for having some of the most widely known and recognizable superhero characters of all time. While Superman and Batman are the undisputed champions and undeniably, icons in their own right, there are others like Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Aquaman that have managed to stay well-known despite no live-action movie associated with them for a long while. That has of course since changed with the release of 2011’s Green Lantern, 2017’s Wonder Woman and the upcoming 2018’s Aquaman. There’s one immensely popular character though that has yet to receive his own live-action flick even though it may change in the next few years.

Even so, The Flash isn’t exactly devoid of live-action appearances any more. He showed up first in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in the infamous Knightmare sequence whose true motives will forever be shrouded in secrecy now that director Zack Snyder is off the DCEU (mostly). He returned for a brief cameo in Suicide Squad, apprehending Jai Courtney’s Boomerang in the film’s opening moments. And he had a full-fledged role in the fledgling Justice League that opened to tepid reviews and closed off with a poor box-office run for a movie of its caliber even though Ezra Miller infused life into his role as the goofball-esque Barry Allen. Now all that remains is a solo movie and despite having changed directors twice, Warner Bros. assured us they’re committed to making a movie by hiring Spider-Man: Homecoming scribes Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley as a director duo.

For quite a while, rumor mills were pointing to this being a Flashpoint movie, that would see the final appearance of Ben Affleck’s version of the Batman before Barry Allen messes up timelines and we end up with a different Batman altogether. In the comics of the same name, Bruce Wayne’s father Thomas Wayne ends up becoming Batman in the parallel reality and Jeffrey Dean Morgan who played Wayne’s father in the DCEU was even up for the role. Besides, with all the talk about Affleck wanting a clean chit from Batman after the DC movies tanked lent further credence (get it?) to these rumors and it was all but confirmed that Barry Allen’s solo outing would be Flashpoint. That is, until earlier this month.

Earlier this May, rumors started floating around that the Flash solo project was no longer Flashpoint but was instead headed in the direction of a more traditional standalone outing. These rumors have stemmed from the directors internally referring to the movie as The Flash instead of Flashpoint and also due to several reliable reporters circulating that this is indeed the case. The most notable is Umberto Gonzalez of The Latino Review who has an impeccable track record with these types of tidbits. He recently tweeted a photo of Jeffrey Dean Morgan dressed as Batman disintegrating, as if trying to convey that Flashpoint is gone.

Where does that leave The Flash? And more importantly, where does that leave the issue of changing Bat-men? For all we know, Ben Affleck is still The Batman in the DCEU and no new Bruce Wayne has been officially announced yet, even though plenty have been rumored, including Jake Gyllenhall, who has since refuted the claims. Affleck also still has one movie left on his contract with DC so perhaps that will either be used for something like Man of Steel 2 or be left to expire on its own. Either ways, the future right now with The Flash and The Batman and the very identity of the Dark Knight is at best, uncertain. Until things become clear, we’re just going to have to lean on to every bit of news we get and extrapolate our own conclusions.

The Flash and The Batman are currently both without a release date.