CinemaCon ‘The Flash’ Test Screening Leak Reveals Identity of Dark Flash And Confirms DC Legacy Cameos
JB Augustine
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With CinemaCon behind us, we have new details to share concerning The Flash, its plot, and some revelations about key characters – including the two variants of Barry Allen (Ezra Miller). This is thanks to a screening held at the convention which many were expecting leading up to the event, and it didn’t take long for fans in attendance to run to Reddit and social media.
Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) and Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) meet Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle) in The Flash (2023), Warner Bros. Entertainment
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Be aware, though – as ComicBookMovie reminds everyone – even if the intel from CinemaCon is accurate, it does not mean the cut of The Flash shown there was final. Scenes can be taken out or added between now and the June release date which may slightly alter what we have to share or nullify it all to a large degree.
In any case, here we go, starting with The Flash’s “secret origin” in the DCEU. Soon after a team-up with Batman and Wonder Woman – a good sign for Gal Gadot’s status within the film – it’s revealed Barry got his powers in 2013, the same year Man of Steel was released and took place, and secretly took part in the background.
Michael Shannon returns as Zod in The Flash trailer
Donning a crude costume, he went to Metropolis to help protect the city from Zod’s invasion and save civilians. Barry contemplates that time even harder after his dad (Ron Livingston) fails to see an acquittal of the murder charges that keep him behind bars. This is the point where Barry considers going back in time to save his mom.
He talks to Bruce (Ben Affleck) who tells him he could “destroy everything,” but he goes back anyway. All it takes to save his mother is hiding a can of tomato soup which sends her to the store and keeps her out of the house at the time of the fatal incident. There’s no mention of Reverse-Flash or who’s responsible.
Bruce tells Barry he could destroy everything in The Flash’s trailer
That said, Barry tries to make it back to the present to see the fruits of his labor, but he’s attacked by Dark Flash and left stranded in 2013 with his younger de-powered self. Barry gives his variant his abilities although it costs him his own powers, and that’s not all that winds up broken.
Reality doesn’t wind up much better when Zod invades with no Superman to stop him. The only recourse the two Barrys have is heading to Gotham City to seek Bruce’s help. At that juncture, they find Michael Keaton’s Batman has replaced Affleck’s, and timelines/realities within the Multiverse have folded in on themselves – as in the Flashpoint storyline.
Batman (Michael Keaton) utters his classic ‘I am Batman’ line in The Flash (2023) via Warner Bros. Pictures
At first, the Burtonverse Bruce has no interest in helping them, but he soon comes around when he realizes it’s their actions that created the new entangled timeline. The only chance they have is to locate Kal-El and their search sends them to a Russian prison. Obviously, they don’t find him there and instead discover Kara Zor-El – Supergirl.
She dispatches the guards after powering up, saving her new allies, one of whom develops a crush on her that becomes important later. Meanwhile, the Zod situation gets worse as he starts terraforming the planet again. Modern Barry needs his powers back to be in the fight, so Kara flies him into a lightning storm and successfully recreates the conditions of his origin.
Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) tries to capture a video of Supergirl (Sasha Calle) in Barry Allen as the Flash in The Flash (2023), Warner Bros. Pictures
His powers restored, the quartet engages Zod with a disastrous outcome – the cost of Bruce and Kara’s lives. Present-day Barry determines they’ve entered a fixed point in the timeline but his younger self refuses to give up. He goes back in an attempt to save Kara – whom he’s smitten with – and everyone else but tries several times before disappearing.
Dark Flash emerges from The Speed Force and reveals he is the 2013 Barry. He’d spent years, it turns out, trying to fix the timeline to no avail – eventually growing to loathe his future self for screwing everything up. The latter thus time-travels one more time to undo saving his mom which takes him through The Speed Force for cameos.
Ezra Miller in new costume in The Flash trailer #2
CBM corroborates the previously reported guest appearances by Nicolas Cage, Helen Slater, Christopher Reeve, George Clooney, and Adam West – but with caveats. They urge readers to temper expectations and explain the sequence is “very VFX-heavy.” We might only see “the shape of these characters” more than the actors. However, we might be treated to the sight of Henry Cavill through recycled footage.
Making it to the altered point in time, Barry puts the soup can where it belongs to ensure his mom is killed, and the timeline goes back to normal. He also ensures his dad goes free and runs into a Bruce Wayne, except it’s not Affleck or Keaton, though it was going to be. Only his feet are shown.
Warner Bros. may place a cameo here, possibly Clooney, but we can’t say for certain. Originally, Keaton and Supergirl (Sasha Calle) would meet Barry at the end to set up DC Films’ rebooted DCEU that’s no longer happening. Neither is a supposed Crisis On Infinite Earths setup that makes use of the Snyderverse – which is purged completely and goes unmentioned.
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