Yet when it got here to The Flash that proved frustratingly unimaginable. Or a minimum of implausible contemplating the allegations and legal entanglements the Flash actor Miller discovered themselves in by 2023. Whether normal audiences had been totally conscious of Miller’s troubles or wrestle with psychological well being is tough to say, however the reality of the matter is WB correctly determined The Flash’s greatest lead shouldn’t promote the movie, and its second greatest lead, Michael Keaton, selected to not. Newcomer Sasha Calle gave it a formidable faculty strive, however she performed a personality audiences had been not sure about—a Supergirl from a unique universe who might not seem in one other DC movie—and didn’t have the resume of working in earlier DC movies.
In different phrases, Miller’s absence created a black gap within the advertising marketing campaign round The Flash that no person was in a position to fill. That is a fairly main downside proper there, but it surely’s not the largest…
WB Already Signaled This Was the End of the Line
In January 2023, new DC Studios co-head James Gunn boldly announced the primary slate of what he dubbed the brand new DC Universe. There could be a brand new Superman film with a brand new actor and timeline, then tentatively titled Superman: Legacy; there could be TV reveals in live-action and animation; there would even be a brand new Batman unrelated to both Ben Affleck’s character within the DCEU or the one performed by Robert Pattinson in The Batman; and there could be a brand new Supergirl film known as Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.
When requested whether or not Calle would possibly play that Supergirl, Gunn on the time was obscure and maybe evasive. It left room for fan hypothesis, in addition to intense skepticism. And that was in regard to The Flash’s greatest new addition to the DC Extended Universe. Meanwhile it was already confirmed by then that Henry Cavill was carried out as Superman, Gal Gadot appeared unlikely to play Wonder Woman once more as she seemingly mentioned goodbye to the character on social media, and Affleck had spent the previous half-decade with one foot out the door.
The total lineup of the DCEU’s as soon as glistening Justice League was going, going, gone, and no matter guarantees The Flash made in regards to the subsequent period of the onscreen DC universe appeared illusory at finest. And so that they had been. House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock is now Supergirl, Gunn and Muschietti are each allegedly creating a brand new Batman for The Brave and the Bold, and David Corenswet’s Superman presumably hails from a far sunnier Krypton than the grim hellscape Michael Shannon represented in The Flash.
Like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Aquaman 2, and the remainder of the 2023 DC slate, The Flash arrived two years in the past as a lame duck, a brand new phenomenon in cinema created by the commercial scale at which superhero flicks are actually churned out. Admittedly, a film ought to be pleasing unto itself as a whole expertise. And no matter else you would possibly consider The Flash, we do concede it’s a self-contained story with a starting, center, and finish. However, it is usually a bit of a studio’s grander advertising technique, and for the final 20 years Marvel, Disney, and positive sufficient the DCEU have skilled media-savvy followers to anticipate every movie as a pseudo-commercial for the following two or three within the pipeline.
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