It’s looking like Ezra Miller’s The Flash movie will act as a final hurrah for the old DCEU – AKA the SnyderVerse – as we know that the film will loosely adapt the universe-rebooting comic book arc Flashpoint. But as well as ushering in a new age, including the introduction of Sasha Calle’s Supergirl, it’ll somewhat wrap up what’s come before it, too. And that could potentially involve killing off a major hero.
Scooper Mikey Sutton of Geekosity is reporting that The Flash won’t just draw inspiration from Flashpoint but also Crisis on Infinite Earths. Comic fans will know that the mega event killed off both the Flash and Supergirl. Similarly, the Arrowverse adaptation featured the death of Green Arrow and sure enough, another big name will apparently die in this film.
According to Sutton’s insider source, Ben Affleck’s Batman will be used as the “Supergirl or Flash martyr figure” in this version of the multiversal crisis. It’s long been confirmed that Batfleck will be returning in The Flash, reuniting Bruce Wayne and Barry Allen after they bonded in Justice League. Another recent tidbit suggested that Affleck would only have a small role in the movie, though, and now we know why, as he may get killed off early on in the runtime.
Sutton notes that this is a studio-level decision as they’re very keen to promote Robert Pattinson as the main cinematic Batman and if Affleck is coming back one more time, then they want to kill him off so that he can effectively pass the baton onto Pattinson. Though of course, we’ll have already met Battinson when The Batman drops next March before maybe saying goodbye to Batfleck in November, so the handover would be slightly delayed.
It’s also peculiar that WB wants Affleck out the way so that Pattinson can be the only Dark Knight in town when The Flash will also star Michael Keaton’s Caped Crusader, with the DC icon set to return for multiple projects after this. This is probably another sign, though, that the studio is 100% done with the SnyderVerse.
