Last week at San Diego Comic-Con, Warner Bros. revealed that the Flash‘s solo film is going to be called Flashpoint, which sounds like a major change from the project that was previously thought to be a buddy movie between the Flash and Cyborg. Fans of The Flash TV series may already be familiar with the core concept of the Flashpoint comic book miniseries by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert, which saw Barry Allen’s attempt to rewrite history turn into an alternate world disaster. The ending of that book led to the DC New 52 reboot, and today’s Nerdist News is going explain why and how it could do the same thing for the DC Extended Universe.
Join host, and the living embodiment of the Speed Force, Jessica Chobot, as she runs down the basic tenets of Flashpoint. As much fun as it would be to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan reprise their roles as Thomas and Martha Wayne in a very unusual way, the real story isn’t Flashpoint itself. It’s what comes after Flashpoint. The DCEU has only been around for four years, but it could already be time for a partial reboot.
If Warner Bros. was given the chance to reset the timeline, then Flashpoint could be the ideal way to say goodbye to Ben Affleck as Batman. At Comic-Con, Affleck went out of his way to deny the rumors that he’s looking to leave the cape and the cowl behind, but he’s already pulled back as the director of the next Batman movie. The new director, Matt Reeves, has also said that he’s tossing out the Batman script written by Affleck and Geoff Johns. So that leaves Affleck on the hook to star in Batman a movie that he no longer has creative control over. And if the rumors are true, he wouldn’t mind leaving sooner than that.
Flashpoint could easily accomplish that. By the time Barry Allen returns to the normal timeline, he finds that he’s already screwed things up. He could arrive and find that Batman is mysteriously younger and played by a different actor entirely. Or perhaps the Flash won’t notice at all. We expect the rest of the Justice League to stick around, although it would also be a trip to see Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa’s Aquaman go to war against each other in the alternate world.
The other potentially drastic change that could occur because of Flashpoint: a dramatically different tone for the theatrical heroes. Zack Snyder’s influence on the DCEU appears to be on the decline, and he’s even taken the Justice League movie off of his Twitter page. Considering that Snyder is still the named director of that film, it seems like an odd move. And while Joss Whedon is on uncredited rewrites and directing duty right now, he may be in position to drastically change the darker tone of the DCEU. Imagine this: a world where the superheroes can smile and be kind to the general public without being dark and grim.
How do you think that Flashpoint should change the DC Extended Universe? Let us know in the comment section below!
