No, The Flash Doesn’t Really Reset the DC Universe

DC’s try to repeat Marvel’s field workplace domination with a shared universe of its personal has been off the rails for for much longer than it was on them–if certainly it ever really was on them–and The Flash has lengthy been speculated as a option to soft-reboot the total franchise utilizing time journey. And even after seeing the film you is perhaps tempted to suppose that is what occurred right here.

But you would be incorrect. Probably.

Warning: This article comprises all the greatest spoilers from The Flash.

The primary rundown of The Flash goes like this: After heroically rescuing a dozen infants that had fallen out of a hospital window, Barry Allen ranges up and might now run so quick that he goes again in time. So he runs again to his personal childhood and prevents his mother from dying, after which tries to return to the current. But he cannot fairly appear to get there–and then a darkish determine knocks him out of the Speed Force and again into actuality.

He’s in the previous, round the time of the occasions of Man of Steel. General Zod reveals up in search of a lacking Kryptonian–Kara, aka Supergirl, on this universe–and in any other case there are no superheroes who may have any probability of standing as much as Zod and his minions. No Wonder Woman, no Aquaman, no Cyborg. And no Flash, since this youthful Barry was going to go on a date with Iris West as an alternative of being in the place the place he will get his powers. But Old Barry fixes that.

So in the battle in opposition to Zod and the different Kryptonians, we now have two Flashes (certainly one of whom is model new), a Supergirl who’s been in Russian jail for a very long time, and a Batman who’s a long time older than the one Barry used to know.

The good guys do not win this one. Zod kills Supergirl, Batman crashes the Batwing and blows up, and Younger Barry decides to check out time touring. But nothing he does works. Supergirl all the time dies, and Zod all the time kills everybody on Earth. Younger Barry tries for a really very long time, though–long sufficient that each one of actuality in each universe is beginning to break down, as we see demonstrated by goofy CGI orbs, filled with previous Batmen and Superpeople, crashing into one another in the Speed Force.

Our essential Barry pleads with Other Barry to cease, however he will not hear. Eventually, nonetheless, one other model of that Alt-Barry, from earlier in his countless cycle of failing to cease Zod, pops into the Speed Force, hears these pleas, and takes out his older self. This kills all variations of Barry from this non-Justice League universe, and permits Zod to extinguish the total human race in that universe. And with nobody left to attempt to save, Barry is free to attempt to return to his previous timeline.

It initially looks like possibly he succeeded, however the cracks present fairly rapidly: His dad, in jail for allegedly killing Barry’s mother, wins his attraction primarily based on proof that did not exist in the previous timeline. And then when Barry tries to have a chat together with his previous pal Bruce Wayne, he discovers he undoubtedly nonetheless is not residence. Because on this universe, George Clooney is Batman.

The post-credits scene offers us one further main nugget of knowledge: Aquaman exists right here, and he is precisely the identical as the Aquaman we already knew.

This is a extremely open-ended story, and so it isn’t attainable to say with any certainty what all this implies proper now. But it appears fairly clear what it does not imply: that we have landed in the everlasting new residence of the DC movieverse. While it is conceivable that Clooney, who performed the half in Batman & Robin, would don the cape once more for a job the measurement of the ones Keaton and Affleck had in The Flash, there’s nearly no probability he is truly this franchise’s Batman of the future. While plans can change, DC co-boss James Gunn stated a pair months again that they need anyone for his or her subsequent Batman who hasn’t played the part before, and Clooney is certainly not that.

On the different hand, Clooney can be a reasonably good title to rebuild the franchise round. And whereas he is actually mocked Batman & Robin–which is, arms down, the worst Batman film, loads of instances over the previous three decades–that does not preclude him from making an attempt it once more with a completely completely different set of creatives.

Realistically, although, if Clooney have been again as the new Batman to interchange Ben Affleck in the DC movieverse, we’d in all probability learn about it from real-world information sources.

So what’s the deal right here? For now: nothing in any respect. The Flash doesn’t mirror any form of change in the established order of the DC franchise past the introduction of the multiverse. That’s not a small factor, however it does not truly, you understand, change the state of actuality past this movie. Ben Affleck’s Batman wasn’t written out of existence, for example–the universe Barry got here from remains to be there, with out a Flash.

So what we truly find yourself with the Clooney bit, actually, is a sequel tease that provides The Flash the air of a reboot of Sliders, with Barry having to hop from dimension to dimension in hopes that his subsequent leap takes him again residence. It’s a terrific thought for a film, frankly, and one that might have large ramifications for the way forward for the DC Extended Universe.

That’s form of the punchline with The Flash: It does not by itself change something about the better DC franchise past offering a framework that may permit future films to dramatically change the established order if the studio desires them to. It’s not like Marvel’s Loki, the place the introduction of the multiverse was itself an inciting incident for the better story of Kang the Conqueror. The Flash, against this, is merely setting issues up in order that the new-look DC Studios can begin no matter new large plot it desires afterward. It opens the doorways to many potential new paths, however it’s ready for anyone else to determine which one we will take.

In the meantime, they do not need you to sweat all these things an excessive amount of, which is what the Aquaman cameo in the post-credits scene is about. In the scene, Barry tells Arthur about how though he is met all these completely different Batmen, each Aquaman is precisely the identical. Just so you understand that when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes out later this yr, you need not fear about which universe it is happening in–it’s the identical both method!

Not sweating all that is in all probability the greatest thought for all of us, because it’s too early for brand spanking new DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran to have gotten their total plans underway in full in a method that we will see–every DC film popping out this yr was in manufacturing earlier than these two took over. So we’ll have some time to attend earlier than we get any thought of what is actually occurring in the DC Universe. Possibly till we see the rumored Batman film that may reportedly be underneath the care of The Flash director Andy Muschietti.

The comedian guide story on which that movie will likely be primarily based, The Brave and the Bold, introduces Bruce Wayne’s son, Damian, as Robin and inheritor to the position of Batman. If Clooney goes to stay round as Bruce past this cameo, it is a believable one-movie story for him that might depart us with Damian Wayne as DC’s essential franchise Batman. And in that sense, this Batman movie may function a direct sequel to The Flash, and it could even be the franchise reset that we thought The Flash was going to be.

But there are too many items in movement, and we do not know sufficient about any of them but.