Credit: Inside the MagicEzra Miller’s The Flash (2023) manages to set up something fans weren’t ready for, leaving everyone puzzled at what this means for James Gunn’s DCU.
***SPOILERS FOR THE FLASH***
James Gunn and Peter Safran are now the CEOs of DC Studios. They oversee all the projects for DC, and the new DCU will officially begin with Superman: Legacy (2025) with Blue Beetle (2023) being the first DCU character in the new reboot. This leaves movies like The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) in limbo as they won’t be officially a part of the DCU, but it doesn’t mean they can’t set things up.
Andy Muschetti’s Flash was supposedly going to reboot the entire DCU, and while it did promise to do that, the movie didn’t cleanly reset the franchise. It left Barry “fixing” the Multiverse after allowing Zod and his Kryptonian army to fight Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, which always ends with Zod winning.
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Barry Allen abandons the Multiverse to fix his mistakes, but in the process, he changes some key details. Bruce Wayne meets him at the end of the movie, and instead of Ben Affleck, George Clooney shows up. Allen isn’t happy to see that the universe has changed drastically, and while Clooney looks confused, some fans forget a few essential facts about Batman.
While Clooney might appear in future DCU projects, he won’t be the DCU Batman. Why? James Gunn already confirmed on Twitter that a new actor will take on the role, and no previous actors will reprise the role. Clooney would work perfectly as an older Bruce Wayne for a Batman Beyond project, so fans might hope for Clooney to return for that role.
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Some fans point out how Michael Keaton was supposed to show up at the end, but quick reshoots changed it to have George Clooney. Fans believe Keaton’s Bruce Wayne/Batman was great but limited in what the hero could do. This led to the hero feeling nothing like what the hero felt like in Tim Burton’s Batman movies since The Flash made no effort to build on Keaton’s Batman arc.
DC will definitely confuse fans into believing George Clooney is now the DCU Batman, and it’s not surprising why fans would think that. Barry Allen fixed the franchise and found a new variant of Batman in his home universe, right? Some believe that Flash might be in an alternate universe and find his way to the new home universe (The one for the DCU) because of James Gunn’s comments on what to expect from Batman: Brave and the Bold.
Related: Movies Like ‘The Flash’ Can Hurt Actors’ Mental Health
Andy Muschetti will direct the upcoming Batman movie, giving fans a good idea of what to expect. Clearly, The Flash cared more about Batman than the Scarlet Speedster, so it’s no surprise that Gunn wants Muschetti to take the reigns for the DCU Batman.
Do you think The Flash hurt the DCU? Let Inside the Magic know what you think!