After being delayed for years, The Flash is finally on track. Andy Muschietti is directing the movie for a November 2022 release, so it’s only a matter of time before Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen takes the spotlight on the big screen. But he might struggle for the audience’s attention, because The Flash is shaping up to be the cameo-laden epic fans are hoping Spider-Man: No Way Home will be.
Both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck are returning to the role of Bruce Wayne across parallel dimensions, while Sasha Calle will be introduced as the DCEU’s Supergirl. The fact that there’s been a lot more buzz about the other heroes appearing in the film than the Flash himself could pose a problem for the title character. If Barry has to compete with Supergirl, Batman, and another Batman, will the story be able to do him justice?
The story of The Flash will initially follow up on Barry’s most significant DCEU plot point to date: the murder of his mother. He’ll go back in time to prevent her death, which will have all kinds of unintended ramifications across the spacetime continuum. This will warrant the help of Keaton’s Batman, Affleck’s Batman, and Calle’s Supergirl to set the timelines straight. Based on that premise, it sounds like the movie will start off focused on Barry’s grief over losing his mother and the extreme lengths he’ll go to in order to bring her back, but move on to bigger, bolder storylines as soon as the multiverse is ripped open.
Affleck’s Batman developed a kind of surrogate father-son relationship with Miller’s Flash in Justice League. However, their dynamic in that movie was skin-deep, transparently stolen from Tony Stark and Peter Parker’s relationship in the MCU. The Flash has the chance to develop this pairing further as Batman becomes a mentor to the Flash and they bond over both having murdered mothers.
It’s unclear exactly how Keaton’s Batman will factor into the story. Affleck’s Batman has an established history with Miller’s Flash, so there’s a precedent for his appearance in the movie, but Keaton’s Batman is from the wrong franchise. Fans are excited to see Keaton back in the cowl after all these years, but it could be a detriment to The Flash itself if Keaton’s appearance is a distraction.
By bringing back these actors from previous incarnations of the franchise, Warner Bros. is essentially guaranteeing DC fans what Marvel fans hope to see in Spider-Man: No Way Home. But just like a bunch of franchise crossovers in No Way Home would take away from Peter’s current predicament, all the universe-hopping antics in The Flash could ruin the movie if it ends up not really being about the Flash. Blowing open the DC multiverse could take the spotlight away from Barry.
Overstuffing scripts with story material that could be fleshed out into four or five different movies is a common problem with DCEU tentpoles, including the one that introduced Ezra Miller’s Flash in the first place: Batman v Superman. BvS was a Batman reboot, a sequel to Man of Steel, and a precursor to Justice League in addition to telling the story of Batman and Superman coming to blows. Now, it looks like The Flash will be a Justice League spin-off, a sequel to Batman Returns, and a Supergirl movie reboot in addition to kicking off Barry Allen’s solo franchise.
The Flash’s introduction in BvS is dedicated to setting up a movie that was ultimately never made. He appeared from the future to a napping Bruce Wayne and said, “It’s Lois! Lois Lane! She’s the key!” That set up went nowhere and proved Warner's proclivity for cramming its superhero blockbusters full of promising material and then depriving fans of any real payoffs.
The Flash is being written by Christina Hodson, who previously wrote Birds of Prey. Birds of Prey’s biggest issue was its disjointed, unfocused script. It had some stylish action scenes and cool Tarantino-esque dialogue, but it couldn’t choose between being an ensemble team movie and a Harley Quinn solo movie. The Flash could suffer from the same problem, flitting between a Barry Allen solo adventure and a timeline-crossing team-up.
It’s possible that all these additional heroes are being used to support Barry’s journey. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse featured two versions of Peter Parker and a superpowered Gwen Stacy, as well as Spider-Ham, Spider-Man Noir, and SP//dr, but their role in the plot served Miles Morales’ journey as opposed to detracting from it. If The Flash takes cues from the Spidey-centric animated masterpiece – and the fact that the project was initially developed by Spider-Verse producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller suggests that it will – then Supergirl and the Batmen could be used to enhance Barry’s own arc in the movie.
Unfortunately, it seems more likely that the script will get bogged down with the returning Dark Knights and the new Kryptonian and Barry himself will fall by the wayside. In both BvS and Justice League (every version of it), Barry was lost in the fray as more iconic characters overshadowed him. And now that he’s finally getting his own movie, it looks like Warner Bros. is about to make the same mistake all over again.