After first being announced in October 2014 and then spending the next half a decade stuck in development hell and cycling through countless writers and directors in the process, there was a section of fans who were starting to think we might never see The Flash at all, especially when star Ezra Miller found himself caught up in a storm of negative publicity earlier this year.
However, after a string of huge announcements, the Scarlet Speedster’s long-awaited solo debut is now shaping up to be the most exciting movie on the DCEU’s upcoming schedule. Not only did the internet go into meltdown when it was revealed that Michael Keaton would be returning to play Bruce Wayne for the first time since 1992’s Batman Returns, but it has since been confirmed that The Flash will also see Ben Affleck suiting up as the Dark Knight once again, putting months of speculation to bed.
That’s an incredible turnaround for a project that had suffered so many setbacks, and in a new interview, director Andy Muschietti confirmed that both Keaton and Affleck will have substantial roles in the movie, as well as offering some insight into how the DCEU’s multiverse will be established.
“This movie is a bit of a hinge in the sense that it presents a story that implies a unified universe where all the cinematic iterations that we’ve seen before are valid. It’s inclusive in the sense that it is saying all that you’ve seen exists, and everything that you will see exists, in the same unified multiverse.”
Having interacted previously in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, Affleck’s Batman will presumably show up first to ground The Flash in the same world as Zack Snyder’s output before going all-in on the idea of alternate realities, with the It filmmaker hinting as much in the same interview.
“He’s the baseline. He’s part of that unaltered state before we jump into Barry’s adventure. There’s a familiarity there.”
It’ll be interesting to see how the script tackles the introduction of the multiverse now that Keaton and Affleck are both confirmed, and with The Flash still set to adapt the Flashpoint storyline, we might not be too far away from hearing that Jeffrey Dean Morgan will also return as the third Batman to play a substantial role in the movie.
